i6 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



medicine, or whether any other cause was at work, 

 I know not, but the experiment was, despite some 

 misses due to failure to judge the right moment to 

 pull home the hook, an immediate success. 



Bulging trout are bold feeders, and seem to mind 

 being cast over less than do those which are taking 

 surface food ; but they are much more difficult to 

 cover accurately, because they rush from side to 

 side and up and down, and the odds are that, if 

 you cast to one spot, the trout is careering off in 

 pursuit of a nymph to right or left of it. But once 

 the trout sees the fly, the chances of his taking it 

 are far better than are the chances that a surface- 

 feeding trout will take the floating dun which 

 covers him. The fly is allowed to drag in the 

 stream, so as to be thoroughly wet, and is then 

 cast upstream to the feeding fish in all respects 

 like a floating fly, except that it is not dried or 

 allowed to float. The weight of the reel-line will 

 probably be enough to dry the gut, so that the 

 risk of lining your trout is minimized, only the 

 fly and the first link or so of gut going under 

 before it reaches him. I found it best to tie this 

 pattern on gut, and, dressed as described, it has 

 been worth many a good bulger to me, apart from 

 its value for general purposes. 



Later on the value of Tup's Indispensable fished 

 wet impressed me much, and its resemblance to a 

 nymph induced me to give it a trial upon bulging 

 trout. For wet-fly purposes this is as near the 



