FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 267 
quires, and often withdraw completely from the bank to move 
again cautiously towards it without the risk of sending an alarm 
along the stream. Yet I can never fish a bright water on a 
bright day without saying to myself a dozen times, ‘I might 
have had that fish, had I only kept better out of sight.’ 
There are of course many streams, mountain and moorland, 
where such cautious tactics are needless; but in the best 
English trouting counties—Hampshire, for instance, or the 
East Riding, Buckinghamshire, Salop or Devon—concealment 
is the first requisite for sport. In order to this, there are 
many details to be studied. In the first place, if the day be 
sunny, try as far as possible to look the sun in the face. To 
feel his warmth on your back and shoulders is doubtless far 
pleasanter than to be dazzled by his light, both direct and re- 
flected from the water ; but if you want a heavy basket you will 
disregard the inconvenience for the sake of remaining unseen. 
Beginning by a short cast under your own bank, you will gra- 
dually lengthen your throw till your stretcher drops in deep 
shade close under the opposite shore, and each fish successively 
covered will see your fly before any shadow from rod or line 
falls over him. If the wind as well as the sun be in your face, 
humour it as best you can by casting aslant, and working your 
rod horizontally instead of vertically, but unless it blows great 
guns, when the light from behind you will do little harm, per- 
severe in defying both sun and wind. ‘It’s dogged as does it.’ 
Secondly, avail yourself of every scrap of cover. On no 
account let a fish see your figure relieved against the sky. A 
big bush judiciously employed as a screen may enable you to 
do more with a short line than the best far-off casting could 
achieve without its shelter. The apparent stupidity of fish 
swimming high in a still sunny pool when thus approached 
under cover is often most amusing. I have seen large trout in 
the middle of a July day swim leisurely up to my fly and suck 
it in without the slightest misgiving. If bushes are wanting, a 
slight fringe of waterside plants and flowers—willow herb, loose 
strife, figwort and the like—often does good service by blurring 
