NINTH DAY.] EFFECT OF CONTINUOUS FISHING. 253 



full of fish, in the best fishing time, when the spring 

 brown and dun flies were on the water, it was not 

 usual for some excellent anglers, who composed a 

 party of nine, and who fished in this river for ten 

 continuous days, to catch more than two or three fish 

 each person. But one day, when the water was 

 coloured by a flood, in which case the artificial fly 

 could not be distinguished by the fish from the 

 natural fly, I caught twelve or fourteen of the same 

 fish, that had been in the habit of refusing my flies 

 for many days successively. This was in the end of 

 March, 1809, when the flies always came on the 

 water with great regularity ; the blues in dark days, 

 the browns in bright days, between 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 mistake 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 of fish 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 coaisest hair links 



