THE SENSE OF SMELL 9 



II 



THE SENSE OF SMELL 



It is equally certain that trout have some sense of smell. 

 They can find their way by it to a place baited with worms 

 even in the thickest water; and in thick water they would 

 probably starve but for the sense of smell. But it may well 

 be doubted whether they place any reliance on it when 

 taking the fly, natural or artificial. Here, one must infer, 

 they are guided entirely by sight. If they relied on smell 

 the paraffin anointment of the artificial dry fly would hardly 

 fail to put them off; and the absence of an insect smell in 

 the case of a wet fly might be expected to warn them to be 

 careful. Insects have, many of them, quite a strong scent. 

 A box of stone-fly creeper is very distinctly odorous. 



It is, moreover, well known that a gentle or a caddis worm 

 on the hook of a fly often proves irresistible to a trout, and 

 the fact is made use of by unscrupulous anglers. But here 

 the fish is taking the savoury gentle or caddis worm and not 

 the fly, and it is still true that in taking the fly he depends 

 so much more on vision than on any other sense that for 

 the purposes of fly fishing smell and taste may be disre- 

 garded. But the vision of the trout, in its nature and pecu- 

 liarities, deserves a closer study than it has ever, so far 

 as I know, received. 



