112 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



happens frequently in north country streams 

 and I have known it occur on the Kennet, when 

 fishing a sunk fly. In a long day's fishing you 

 may get several such, and these are fish that you 

 cannot catch fishing upstream. And there is 

 no doubt too that occasionally you can get big 

 fish in the clearest and shyest streams by fishing 

 downstream with a long line. Sometimes too 

 when the fish are sunning themselves in a sharp 

 run you can kill fish by working downstream 

 where you will not get a rise fishing up. In 

 fast glides too, where the water runs at a great 

 pace with a surface like glass, you often do 

 better by fishing straight across or across and 

 down than by fishing up. What the reason is 

 I do not know. Again, in a stream which, 

 shallow on one side, deepens and steadies 

 towards the other, until close to the deeper bank 

 there is slack water or an eddy, you will find, 

 if you are fishing from the deep side, that it 

 pays to cast across and let your flies swing round 

 into the eddy. On these occasions, and others, 

 you do best by fishing downstream. 



The truth is that a sunk fly is often taken, 

 not for a fly that has hatched out, but for a 

 nymph or even for a shrimp or other aquatic 

 animal, and as these swim vigorously a fly 

 that moves against the stream imitates them 

 correctly. We do not know always why trout 

 take our fly, when they condescend to do so ; in 

 fact there is a good deal still to be learnt. All 

 I can do is to suggest, as I have tried to do, 



