132 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



be a good hatch, a poor hatch, or no hatch at all ; 

 they may rise and fasten, or they may rise and come 

 short, or not rise at all ; and we are not wise enough 

 to be able to formulate the cause with any degree of 

 accuracy. 



In bygone days someone wrote a few short verses 

 descriptive of the behaviour of 

 Direction of wind. the fish under varying direc- 



tions of wind. I cannot re- 

 member the exact words, but it was to the effect that 

 when the wind was in the east it was good for neither 

 man nor beast ; when it was in the north the prudent 

 fisher did not sally forth ; when the wind was in the 

 south it blew the fly into the fish's mouth ; and when 

 the wind was in the west all things then were at their 

 best. Very ingenious and, like many more of these 

 old sayings, in every way inaccurate and unsound. 



More than thirty years of continual observation 

 have convinced me that the south and west winds are 

 no friends to the Hampshire chalk-stream fishers. The 

 east wind is not as a rule a favourable one, and many 

 of the greatest hatches of duns in the spring have to 

 my certain knowledge been present with a northerly 

 or north-westerly wind. South, west, or south-west 

 winds mean heavy gales in the south-country, and 

 the fly does not as a rule hatch well in stormy weather, 

 nor do the trout or grayling oijhe Test or Itchen 

 rise well when the surface of the water is broken or 

 rough. 



The Test runs more or less from north to south. 



