108 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



dusk is deep. Trout anywhere rise at 

 them, or at imitations of them, then ; but 

 trout in any familiar water do not rise at 

 artificial moths in daytime. You might 

 as well fish with a Mayfly in August as 

 with a moth when the sun is up. 



The other theory also is a shot in the 

 dark ; but I am not so sure that it is 

 a miss. Simply it is that the Loch 

 Derculich trout are so peculiarly in a 

 state of nature that they are exceptionally 

 lacking in discrimination. They are not, 

 as those of Lochleven and many other 

 waters are, sought by anglers every day 

 of the season. They do not, I under- 

 stand, see artificial flies on more than 

 six or eight days of the year. It is 

 therefore conceivable that, if the flies 

 are not wrong in shape or in colour, an 

 erroneous largeness, instead of repelling, 

 may be attractive. Bearing in mind that 

 the fish in much-thrashed waters nearly 

 always ignore lures of more than natural 

 size, one perceives this theory to imply that 

 trout are capable of being "educated," and 



