SPECIAL CONDITIONS— WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 55 



yard or two out from the bank. The change was 

 immediate. By six o'clock I had three and a half 

 brace of average fish {biggest one pound ten 

 ounces), all on the same fly. Fish would surge a 

 yard or more to meet it, would even turn down- 

 stream and take it, though the floating fly had 

 not moved a single one to offer. There was no 

 evening rise. 



The following Saturday I was down at the same 

 time. There was the same faint westerly breeze, 

 and much the same light. A few — very few — 

 grayling were taking black gnats for a short time 

 after my arrival, but they soon stopped entirely, 

 and I had only one in my basket. Not a rise 

 dimpled the surface. I continued, however, cast- 

 ing a Black Gnat under my own bank — the right — 

 for some forty or fifty yards, without an offer. I had 

 the mortification of seeing three handsome trout 

 move out from position, and I was just about to 

 change to a Hare's Ear Sedge when I saw a grass- 

 moth flutter out of the sedges and across the water. 

 As luck would have it, I had four floating Grannom 

 in my cap, and it didn't take long to knot one on. 

 In a few minutes I was into a trout, which took 

 as the fly lit. I landed him, and then another, 

 and yet a further brace, every one of which took 

 the Grannom without the least hesitation. Then 

 I found myself trenching on the beat of another 

 angler, and I bethought me that the three fish I 

 had disturbed might be back in position ; so I 



