192 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



simultaneously affected. While one angler is in con- 

 stant occupation, another in a neighbouring bay is 

 tearfully bemoaning his unhappy lot. 



From the beginning of June until the end of the 

 season the angler may anticipate an evening rise, 

 especially under the conditions I have already endea- 

 voured to describe. On some waters the evening rise 

 occurs the season through. Occasionally, indeed, the 

 sport to be obtained by day is insignificant ; where fish 

 are large and few, the angler will generally find, even 

 as early as April, the hour succeeding sunset the only 

 one of the twenty-four in which his pastime is pursued 

 with profit. Not until gloaming do the great, full- 

 nourished trout show themselves disposed to approach 

 the surface. So uncertain, however, is the humour of 

 the trout, that even the evening rise may disappoint us. 



The phenomenon we know as rising short remains 

 a puzzle to the angler. On it, as on so many other 

 problems of our art, we are still divided. It manifests 

 itself in such a variety of circumstances that it is im 

 possible to ascribe it to a single cause. I have, like 

 others, suffered from it frequently, but have never 

 known it more painfully displayed than on the occa- 

 sion of a recent visit to a water holding trout so 

 numerous that it seldom fails the angler. It was early 



