184 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



sires to be thoroughly equipped, should provide him- 

 'Self with Mr. Cholmondeley-Pennell 's Tweezers. He 

 will find them extremely useful for the purpose they 

 have been devised to serve. 1 have, however, had no 

 experience of their merits. I have never owned them. 

 The simpler my equipment, the happier I am. Since 

 the implements I do possess have an irritating trick of 

 disappearing just when their presence is most urgently 

 required, to add to their number would be to fill to over- 

 •flowing the cup of my sorrows, already full enough. 



Is it possible to explain the different methods 

 adopted by the trout in rising to the natural fly ? 

 They are not based on chance or whim ; they own 

 a definite cause outside the volition of the trout, and 

 affecting, not an occasional, isolated fish, but a whole 

 body of fish simultaneously and equally. The circum- 

 stances which determine the character of the rise are 

 probably unvarying in their action. The same condi- 

 tions will invariably produce the same variety of rise. 



Occasionally the fish take the fly with a loud splash, 

 not throwing themselves entirely from the water, but 

 freely exposing their caudal extremities as they turn to 

 go down again. Their behaviour resembles that of 

 saithe when feeding on herring sile near the surface of 

 the water. They are quick and hurried in their move- 



