108 TROUT FISHING 



always on such days I find it. The light 

 is as brilliant as it can be ; yet the fish 

 are not made shy. Surely, then, the 

 belief that a strong light keeps them 

 down must be abandoned. A belief that 

 it brings them up, which impetuous 

 reasoning might suggest, would be equally 

 untenable. On a day such as we have 

 been considering sport is good simply 

 because the conditions of the weather, of 

 which the light is only a single symptom, 

 are all of them favourable. 



What these conditions exactly are it 

 would be rash to say ; but I have noticed 

 that they are always present during the 

 period between the passing of a cyclonic 

 storm-centre and the complete establish- 

 ment of a high-pressure system of varying 

 light breezes or dead calm. Sometimes 

 the trout feed while the storm is rising, 

 and sometimes even when it is altogether 

 past ; but sometimes they do not. The 

 only time when I feel absolutely certain 

 of good sport is when the barometer is 

 rising in the recovery of the atmosphere 



