FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 331 
one fish weighing twenty-eight pounds. This could not have 
been done within the time had I not, in anticipation of the wild 
weather, been armed with stronger gut and a larger fly than 
usual. Four-fifths of the fish were taker with the blue-bottle, 
an excellent fly towards the close of summer, when the natural 
insect goes daft (to use the Yorkshire phrase) and cannot keep 
itself from ‘the drink.’ 
Many similar experiences have led me to the conclusion 
that in bright, shy waters a thunderstorm sets the big fish 
feeding ‘owdaciously.’ And it seems probable that the sudden 
changes in the mood of the fish which every angler must have 
noticed are due to the electrical condition of the atmosphere. 
It often happens that trout all at once cease rising, the river 
which just before was alive with rises becoming absolutely 
dead. In such a case an old hand will sit down and wait. 
Days may be better or worse, but there is hardly ever a day, 
except on a thick, rising water, when the fish do not come on 
the feed at some time or times which the wary angler will not 
let slip. ‘Tout vient a qui sait attendre.’ 
Even odder than the sudden sulking of trout is the fit they 
occasionally take of ‘short rising,’ when after every promising 
break you feel only a slight twitch, and never succeed in 
hooking your fish, Whether this is due to some ocular decep- 
tion which makes them miscalculate their rise, or whether for 
the time they are merely amusing themselves with the fly, 
like ‘MacFarlane’s geese, that liked their play better than 
their meat,’ I cannot pretend to decide. The fit seldom lasts 
long, and while it does it tries the angler’s temper sorely. I 
remember once in a Devonshire brook raising from twenty to 
thirty fish in succession without a single capture. The sky 
changed, and I took seventeen without a miss. 
This may show that after several failures a fly fisher shou! 
not conclude too hastily that he has ‘tailored’ his fish. They 
may never have had the hook in their mouths. When trout 
rise short, it is a good rule to give up striking altogether, and 
be content with keeping a taut line till some determined fish 
