20 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



the fish, that shallow hump seems often almost 

 simultaneous with the lighting of the fly ; but if 

 the cast be wide, your trout will not infrequently 

 dart a yard or more to a wet fly — when for a dry 

 fly he would do no such thing — and then the angler 

 has a warning of the coming of the shallow hump 

 on the surface which tells him that the iron is hot. 

 It may be questioned, however, whether it is not 

 more difficult to time correctly the strike for which 

 one has had such warning than one which comes 

 without warning. 



In my experience, the trout which takes under- 

 water is generally very soundly hooked. A trout 

 taking floaters on the surface frequently sips them 

 in through a narrowly-opened slit of mouth, but 

 an under-water feeder draws in the fly by an ex- 

 tension of the gills which carries it in with a full 

 gulp of water. 



In the effort to divine the indications which call 

 for striking with the wet fly I confess I find a subtle 

 fascination and charm, and, when success attends 

 me, a satisfaction beside which the successful hook- 

 ing of a fish which rises to my floating fly seems 

 second-rate in its sameness and comparative ob- 

 viousness and monotony of achievement. 



OF ROUGH WATER AND GREY-BROWN SHADOW. 



It was blowing up freshly from the south-west as 

 the train ran into Winchester one April a year or 

 two back, and ere the water-meadows were reached 



