THE ETHICS OF THE DRY-FLY 71 



matter of some difficulty, entailing correspondence, 

 and frequently requires to be arranged, well ahead. 

 When the day comes it may be all that could be 

 desired, with a good hatch of fly, fish rising freely 

 and fastening, and then everything is couleur de rose. 

 Unfortunately such occasions are like the proverbial 

 angel's visits, "few and far between," and when our 

 long-expected guest arrives it is perhaps during a 

 spell of unpropitious weather — often a dull sunless 

 day with rough downstream wind. The past-master 

 will in such case possess his soul in patience and wait 

 for the appearance of the duns or other flies. He 

 will then cast to the rising trout, fishing upstream, 

 and, as shown in a previous chapter, there is no great 

 difficulty in accomplishing this in anything short of a 

 hurricane. If, however, the fly should be conspicuous 

 by its absence he will shrug his shoulders and hope 

 for better luck next time. 



One who is not so well able to bear up under 

 adversity, and is, perhaps, indisposed to waive the 

 remote chance of killing fish, will proceed to the 

 upper limit of the fishery and flog it steadily down 

 with wet-fly. He will probably see some fish follow- 

 ing his fly, occasionally even plucking at it and 

 getting pricked ; a few, but a very small proportion, 

 being landed, and of these the vast majority year- 

 lings or two-year-olds. Perchance he may succeed 

 in getting two or three killable trout, but these as a 

 rule are only just up to, or possibly under, the legal 

 limit of the fishery. 



