SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS 161 



including my Orange Quill, he ignored it persistently for a 

 while, and then suddenly stopped. I ought to have 

 changed to a Spinner, but I had always supposed that the 

 Orange Quill was taken for a spinner, as it is in colour 

 so unlike the Blue- winged Olive, so I stuck to the Quill. 

 The next fish took the Quill, but he did not hold it, and the 

 line coming away with a jerk, went into a snarl, which 

 occupied ten minutes of the fast dying rise to unravel. 

 I had time to try two more risers, but neither had any 

 use for the Orange Quill, and at 10.5 p.m. it was all over, 

 and I was left with a leash of fish, a sense of failure and 

 bafflement. 



ON THE ACCURACY OF AUTHORITIES. 



Then I never suspected the dogma that an evening mist 

 puts the fish down for good, and for years and years I 

 have reeled up and gone home when the surface began 

 to smoke at night. Shall I do so again ? 



On June 16 on the Itchen the blue-winged olive 

 began to come up in some quantity about eight o'clock, 

 and I expected to find the fish taking them freely. But 

 the moon was behind my hand, and I found every fish 

 stopping at once when I began to cast, and when nine 

 o'clock came the evening rise had yielded me nothing. 

 Then, creeping round the next bend, I saw the ominous 

 mist approaching, and I began to despair, as in duty bound. 

 I was, however, the wrong side of the river for leaving it 

 to go in, and I had to walk up the bank a mile or so to 

 reach a bridge. So I moved on to meet the mist. I had 

 not dismantled my rod, and presently I became aware of a 

 good trout rising in the middle, and apparently rising quite 

 well, despite the mist. The size and shape of the ring 

 showed that he was taking the blue-winged olive. So I 

 gave him my invariable prescription, the large Orange Quill. 



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