I 



water, without the instructions of a scientific teacher, 

 may catch trout by fishing well up a stream after a 

 spate or fresh, though not in such quantities as a 

 proficient in the art The true secret of old. fiy- 

 fishers, who scarcely ever return with a light creel, 

 is only to go to the water when, from long observa- 

 tion, they are almost certain that trouts will rise. 

 An old fly-fisher, who lived near Sanquhar, and 

 whom I have often fished with, up Spank and down 

 Crawick, in Ken, Scar, and Yeochan, once told me, 

 when I was questioning as to the secret of his suc- 

 cess, that for a gill of whiskey he would tell me 

 how I might always succeed. It was a bargain. 

 "Ne'er fish but when trouts are hungry, and fish 

 aye where they 're plenty." 'But how am I to know 

 that?' "In troth," replied he, "I canna verra well 

 tell ye. But ye 11 no find mony within twa miles 

 o' where ye can see at ae gliff, a manse, a mill, and 

 a public, nor nigh a place where tinklers often camp. 

 Trouts dinna seem inclined to take their meat 

 for a fortnight after sheep-washin', nor when the 

 water 's verra high or verra low. They dinna feed 

 freely outher on a warm bright day nor on a cauld 

 dark ane ; and the feck o' them keep a black fast 

 in a' weathers, atween Michaelmas and Easter." I 

 have seen a lad sit down by the water-side, near 

 the head of Yeochan, and, with a few threads from 

 his bonnet, and the feather of a curlew, dress a fly 

 on a common hook not to a length of gut clear as 

 the thread of the gossamer and almost as fine, but 



