54 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



and luring the angler ever upward till suddenly the rising 

 ceases, and the trout is seen ready to resume his beat at 

 the bottom of the eddy, which he will do unless scared by 

 the angler or his rod. 



Thus it appears that in different conditions trout rise 

 in a variety of ways, and the observation one hears made 

 that one has to strike more rapidly to hook the trout 

 of this river than the trout of such and such another river 

 only means that the conditions of the former river exact a 

 quicker rise than those of the latter. This may in part 

 be due to the fact that the trout of the former river run 

 smaller than those of the latter, as, the larger the trout, the 

 slower, other things being equal, is his rise. 



With these preliminary considerations before us, let 

 us proceed to examine the action of trout rising under 

 varying conditions. A good start may be made in the 

 High Street of Winchester, where below the Town Hall 

 a fast but narrow stream runs from a culvert between 

 brick walls alongside the Public Gardens. There one may 

 generally see several brace of vigorous trout, but it will 

 be rare to see one break the surface in feeding. Yet 

 that they are well fed is evident. The stream is shallow, 

 but they lie as deep as they can, and the swifter part of 

 the water passes overhead. To test how they feed, 

 however, make a few little rolls of new bread and throw 

 them in. In a moment the fish is in the current. He does 

 not rush to meet the bread. He merely adjust his fins, and 

 the current swings the roll to his mouth, where it is sucked 

 in by the expansion of his gills. In just the same way the 

 trout of a glassy glide, just below and flush with a carrier 

 which prevents them from seeing many natural insects on 

 the surface, may at the time of a strong rise be seen busily 

 stemming the strong current and moving slightly to left 

 or right to meet and take in the ascending nymph, or what- 



