ISO THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



when we raise the rod, and if we do in a few seconds 

 the fly may be seen in the air, and we are only too 

 conscious of the fact that it is another case of dis- 

 appointment. 



In a subsequent chapter it is the intention to 

 discuss striking, and for the moment let it be con- 

 ceded that when a fish is badly hooked and gets 

 away it is not usually due to any want of rapidity 

 or other fault in the action of strikincf. 



It may be laid down almost as an axiom that when a 

 trout which has risen at the angler's fly is not hooked 

 at all or is so lightly hooked that it soon shakes the 

 hook out it has come short, i.e. for some reason either 

 turned at the last moment away from the tempting 

 morsel, or only taken it so gingerly into its mouth 

 that the barb of the hook is not driven home by 

 the act of striking. 



Why do fish come short '^ Experience goes to show 



that the shyer and more highly 



Reasons for coming educated are the trout the 



short. greater is their tendency to 



thwart all the angler's hopes 

 at the last moment. This sentence I fully believe if 

 worked out au fond contains within itself the entire 

 theory of the subject. On a heavily fished water, trout 

 are certainly more wary and more prone to come short 

 than on a stream where the fisherman's presence is 

 a comparative rarity. In exceptionally bright sun- 

 shine the proportion of rising fish which come short 

 is greater than in dull, cloudy weather. A fish rising 



