152 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



In the afternoon I saw two fish feeding cautiously under 

 the edge of a long bank of cut weed which had effected a 

 lodgment along the opposite side of the river. Now I saw 

 at once that, if I cast a dry fly to either of these fish the 

 odds were long that there would be a drag ere the fly reached 

 him, and a needless addition to his already too advanced 

 education. I might, of course, have left those two fish 

 severely alone. But that nymph was in my cap, and 

 presently it was attached to the end of my line and dropped, 

 thoroughly wetted, an inch from the edge of the weed-bank, 

 and a foot or so above the lower trout. He was not a bit 

 scared until he had become attached to my line, which 

 took about one second, and then it did not matter so much. 

 Precisely the same thing occurred with the trout at the 

 other end of the weed-patch five or six yards farther up, and 

 I repeated the successful experiment at a second bank 

 of weeds a few yards higher. Now my alternatives were 

 these: (i) To cast a dry fly with no reasonable hope of 

 catching these trout, and every prospect of adding to their 

 education; (2) to leave them alone; (3) to do what I did. 

 And I leave it to the reader to say which was the reasonable 

 course to take. 



The next incident, or, rather, pair of incidents, occurred 

 on one fast shallow, where the trout have the reputation of 

 being almost uncatchable. So they are with the dry fly, 

 for no skill — at any rate, none at my command — can 

 avail to prevent a drag being set up within a moment of 

 the delivery of a cast from the only position from which 

 it can be made with any hope of concealment. Yet one 

 morning, when there was a rise of tiny little pale duns, 

 and the fish on the shallow were bulging gaily, I killed 

 there in less than ten minutes a brace of handsome trout on 

 a tiny dotterel hackle dressed Stewart-wise on a No. 00 hook 

 to gut. Each took the fly eagerly. I detected no shyness 



