94 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



the dark spring olive as was made, if not better; but 

 something was wrong. I caught a fly and had a look at 

 it. It was not the dark spring olive at all, but the large 

 medium olive which usually comes on about mid- April, 

 a fly which experience has taught me indicates Gold- 

 ribbed Hare's ear. I had only one in mjr box, but I 

 knotted it on and was presently covering my first riser 

 again. Up he came promptly and fastened firmly, and 

 presently was guided to the net, a nice plump fish of 

 one pound three ounces, in excellent condition. In the 

 course of his struggles he had, however, run up into the 

 province where the bigger trout had been rising above, 

 and therefore, though I had not followed him, I thought 

 it wise to give the corner rest, and I rambled down-stream 

 for a hundred yards or so in search of another riser to 

 keep me occupied. None appearing, I returned in a quarter 

 of an hour, to find all three fish in the bend again busy 

 sucking down the duns every two or three minutes. I 

 offered my Hare's ear to the lowest, and half a dozen 

 times it was ignored. So I cast across to my riser under 

 the far bank. He came up and missed the fly. Some- 

 thing was evidently wrong. I caught another fly, and 

 found that the big dark spring olives were now coming 

 down, and that the few medium olives among them were 

 being rejected in favour of the larger fly. Back went 

 my Rough Olive, and the first time it covered the trout 

 right it was taken. So was the trout — a fish of one and 

 three-quarter pounds. I put down the next fish, and got 

 the third before twelve o'clock. 



I had now fished out the bend and had the wind behind 

 me straight upstream, with, if anything, a shade of a 

 push against my own bank. There was a strong ripple 

 in mid-river, with deep oily water under my bank, and it 

 was there I found most of the few rising fish concentrated. 



