SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS 153 



of the sunken fly, but a dry fly always put them down with 

 great suddenness. Then a moment later, on a smooth 

 length just above, there was a big trout rising under the 

 opposite bank, protected by the stump of a giant rush in 

 such a way that every fly put to him dry was bound to 

 swing across current with a drag at the moment of reaching 

 him. The Dotterel dun was still attached, and he took it at 

 the third offer, was hooked, and was played fifty or sixty 

 yards down from his holt, and finally lost just as he seemed 

 to be coming to net. 



On another reach a day or two earlier I saw a fish of 

 good size lying out close to the surface, impudently visible, 

 with his nose almost against the edge of a tiny bed of 

 weeds which came to the surface. The result was that 

 directly a fly was floated down to the fish it either stopped 

 on the weed, or, if cast beyond it, swung round to his nose 

 or his back with an aggravated and vicious drag. What 

 that trout did not know about surface drag was not worth 

 knowing. He knew so much that it did not disturb him a 

 bit (the dry-fly man had hammered him into this condition, 

 mind you !), and he placidly went on with his feeding, 

 dropping a yard or so to take the natural flies which went 

 by him without drag on the far side of the weed. There 

 was a rise of blue-winged olive, and I selected a dotterel 

 hackle with a dubbed body, giving, when wet, much the 

 colour of the body of the natural insect. The fly, thoroughly 

 wet, was dropped a yard the other side of the weed-bed, 

 and it swung round under water towards our trout, who 

 immediately turned and took it in the most confid- 

 ing manner. He, unfortunately, kicked off, but that is 

 irrelevant for present purposes. The point is, he took 

 the fly. 



I never saw a length on which it was harder to avoid a 

 drag, and all the trout had reached one or two stages 



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