THE WAY OF A TROUT 

 WITH A FLY 



DIVISION I 

 PART I 



I 



CONSIDERATIONS OF MOTIVE 



One frequently sees it maintained in books and in articles 

 in the press that it is impossible to say why trout come 

 on to the rise. With all possible respect for the distin- 

 guished authors of those books and articles, I venture to 

 disagree. Trout come on to the rise for two reasons in 

 combination — (i) because they are hungry, and (2) because 

 there is food. It is no answer to say that frequently fly is in 

 quantity on the water and is neglected. That is quite true, 

 and yet it is consistent with the trout not being hungry — 

 being perhaps gorged — or being busy with some preferable 

 diet under water. It is clear that the trout do not rise 

 without something to rise at, that when they come on 

 to the rise they do so with remarkable unanimity, that 

 they leave off with a unanimity almost as remarkable, that 

 when fly food is scarce they do not rise as freely as when it is 

 plentiful. And when it is plentiful and they are not rising 

 it is not too great an assumption to suggest that it is because 

 they are not hungry. It is probably within the experience 

 of most chalk-stream anglers that fleets of upwinged duns 

 sail down neglected, with only a trout rising fitfully here 

 and there among them, and that that trout here and there 

 is singularly amenable to the attraction of an iron-blue dun - 



