96 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



North-Country man coming to practise his art 

 upon South-Country streams^ and accustomed to 

 catch his trout in considerable numbers, soon be- 

 comes disheartened by failure to do the like on 

 rivers where two or three brace is a good bag. 

 Probably he casts a much shorter line than is 

 advisable on chalk streams, and so scares off or 

 puts down his fish, and discouragement and the 

 sceptical attitude of his South-Country hosts and 

 keepers knock him off his game before he has had 

 time to adjust himself to the (to him) novel con- 

 ditions. 



Fishing a chalk stream with a wet fly is not quite 

 like fishing a mountain stream or North-Country 

 river, and it is not a game to be learnt in an hour 

 or a day. But if the angler will fix his mind 

 firmly on the fact that the wet fly was for centuries 

 the only method in use on chalk streams, and 

 that it brought excellent baskets to good anglers 

 in the past, he may set to work with confidence 

 that in the right conditions the wet fly will kill, 

 and kill well, at this day, and he may set himself 

 with equal confidence to find out for himself how 

 it is done. And let him not be disturbed by the 

 fact that there are days or hours when it has not 

 a chance against the dry fly ; for there are days 

 and hours when the dry fly has not a chance 

 against it, and there are other occasions when the 

 trout will take either with more or less equal 

 freedom. 



