44 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



and darkness is supervening. What effect has this upon 

 the trout ? 



It is a remarkable fact that, until the sun's rim dips, 

 the evening rise does not begin. Often it does not begin 

 then; but, though a stray fish may take a fly here and 

 there, generally in parts when the sun shines down-stream, 

 the evening rise proper never begins before, and it often 

 begins directly after — immediately, that is, that the sun's 

 direct rays are off the water. It is true that this is the 

 time that spinners choose to come down upon the water — 

 sometimes spent and dying, often with wings erect. But 

 at times one sees quite enough new subimagines hatching 

 just before sunset to bring on a rise if it were at any other 

 time of day, and often there are many spinners then on 

 the water. And if there be a hill, or high river bank, or a 

 screen of trees which takes the direct sunlight off the water 

 earlier than the hour of sunset, there one sees the evening 

 rise accelerated. This is a fact of which the angler, desirous 

 of making the most of his evening, may make profitable 

 use while waiting for the general evening rise to begin. It 

 would seem, therefore, that the diffused light reflected from 

 the sky after sunset provides the trout with better con- 

 ditions for seeing his surface prey than are afforded by the 

 sunlight impinging directly, but at a low angle, upon the 

 surface. The lighting may be scanty — but what there is 

 of it strikes to a large extent straight down from the sky — 

 and it would almost seem as if the trout could thus see 

 better than if vision were confused by the almost horizontal 

 rays of the setting sun. It would be interesting to see 

 whether similar conditions prevail just before sunrise. 

 I have never been up early enough to see. I have often 

 observed that on a dull day, with diffused light only, the 

 trout are much more alive to the presence of the angler 

 on the bank, and much more cautious in their scrutiny of 



