90 MORE MAXIMS. 



in the season, are for the most part of a dark sober hue ; 

 while, on the contrary, those of light and gay colours, 

 and which are more delicate in constitution, come forth 

 only after the season has considerably advanced, and 

 then only towards noon, in the warmest period of 

 the day ; and in lowering cold days, not at all. In 

 rough deep waters, a comparatively large and burly 

 dressed fly should be used ; but in clear small streams 

 it is indispensably necessary that the flies should be 

 small, and the whole of the lines of the very finest 

 description possible. 



In a cloudy day after a mild rain, trout will take 

 the worm, minnow, or fly, according to the season 

 and state of the water : the worm, when the river is 

 increasing or muddy ; the minnow when the flood is 

 subsiding and the water of a brown colour ; and the fly 

 when it has nearly returned to its ordinary condition. 

 But the clouds must not be of a white and fleecy 

 character, which portends more rain or thunder, but blue 

 and roving- like. 



It is said (but I can't assert it) that cloudy days 

 following moonlight nights are most favourable to the 

 angler, as the fish do not feed so plentifully during 

 moonlight as on dark nights ; while, on the other hand, 

 in days succeeding dark windy nights, the large fish 

 will not bite, as they range and glut themselves during 

 the whole of such nights. A river in which sheep have 

 been washed is useless for several days after, until 

 the fish recover from the sickening effects of the filth 

 taken from the wool. 



