i8 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



water something helps the angler to divine the 

 moment for action. In a subsequent section, under 

 the heading " The Grey-Brown Shadow," will be 

 found an account of a day's sport with the wet fly 

 in an upstream wind so rough as to throw the 

 river into waves. The flash of the fish as it turns 

 to take the fly may often be seen, so dimly and so 

 momentarily as to be apt to escape notice if one 

 does not know what to look for ; but I have on 

 several occasions even divined it through water 

 which reflected a bright white glare, and seemed 

 opaque to the eye. If on these occasions a hooked 

 trout had not proved the truth of my observation, 

 I could not have sworn to having certainly seen 

 anything move ; but there through the surface, 

 which looked at the angle of view impenetrable to 

 the eye, I did seem to glimpse a faint pink flash 

 that corresponded to no movement on the surface, 

 and there was the fish soundly hooked, and no 

 fluke about it. 



Often under an opposite bank, when the light 

 will not permit you to see your gut or fly, you will 

 see a trout suddenly ascending to near the top of 

 the water, and as suddenly sinking ; then, if you 

 tighten, ten to one your hook is firmly in his jaws, 

 and you see him shaking his head savagely at the 

 unexpected restraint upon his liberty ere he makes 

 his first rush. 



When fish are bulging, the moment of taking 

 the fly is generally marked by a swirl, and the 



