SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 73 



takes place ; but subaqueous forms of fly-life are 

 always about (though, no doubt, sparsely at other 

 times than that of the rise), and experience proves 

 that when no definite rise is in progress, no trout 

 that is on the alert finds it easy to resist a nymph 

 who has left his shelter. Hence, given the 

 willingness of the trout to feed, and the absence of 

 a steady diet of dominant attractiveness, there 

 is every inducement for him to be of an open 

 mind as to the provender that will seduce 

 him. 



Then there is our friend the " tailer," of whom 

 more elsewhere. 



Thus, instead of spiking his rod when the morning 

 rise is over, and taking his Walton or his Marcus 

 Aurelius or his Omar Khayyam from his pocket, let 

 the wise angler concentrate on the casual feeder ; 

 and if his reward be not great, there is every 

 chance of its being quite respectable, and he may 

 be saved the humiliation of an empty creel. 



OF THE FREQUENTATION OF DITCHES, DRAINS, AND 



CARRIERS, 



I know of no sight more gloomy than that of a 

 golfer painfully tramping from shot to shot. But 

 perhaps the next gloomiest sight is the angler who, 

 with perhaps but a single day at his disposal, 

 lounges hour by hour by the side of the main river, 

 waiting with such patience as he can muster for 

 the rise which comes not. Let us suppose that 



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