FEBRUARY 23 



that about insects which the angler does 

 not see definitely the fish are equally at 

 a loss. 



This assumption, that the eyesight of 

 man and that of the trout are similar, is 

 too easy-going to be accepted in confid- 

 ence. It is disproved by experience such 

 as must have fallen to the lot of all men 

 who have fished in earnest. Who has not 

 at least once found the trout rising so 

 persistently at some particular lure that 

 by and by it became tattered beyond 

 recognition? That this does happen, 

 and not infrequently, is no doubt the 

 origin of the saying, common on many 

 streams, "Never change a fly while the 

 fish are taking it." I myself once found a 

 Saltoun, after the wings had been torn off 

 and only the black body remained, enticing 

 the trout as rapidly as it could be cast 

 upon the water. It may be thought that, 

 as a lure without wings is not the same 

 thing as a lure with wings, whilst the 

 trout rose at the Saltoun in either state 

 with great eagerness, this testimony proves 



