EFFECT OF CONTINUOUS FISHING. 295 



twelve and two o'clock in the middle of the 

 day. In rivers where the artificial fly has 

 never been used, I believe all the fish will mis- 

 take good imitations for natural flies, and in 

 their turn, to use an angler's phrase, " taste 

 the steel ;" but even very imperfect imitations 

 and coarse tackle, which are only successful 

 at night or in turbid water, are sufficient to 

 render fish cautious. This I am convinced of, 

 by observing the difference of the habits offish 

 in strictly preserved streams, and in streams 

 where even peasants have fished with the 

 coarsest tackle. I might quote the Traun at 

 Ischl, where the native fishermen used three 

 or four of the coarsest flies on the coarsest 

 hair links, made of four or five or six hairs, 

 and the Traun at Gmunden, where they are 

 not allowed to fish. The fish that rose took 

 with much more certainty at Gmunden than 

 at Ischl. 



At a time when many flies are on, par- 

 ticularly large ones, a few days of continuous 

 fishing, even with a single rod, will soon make 

 the sport indifferent in the best rivers; but 

 the larger and the deeper the river the longer 



