336 SALMON AND TROUT- 
and besides the numberless flics bred in our southern streams, 
there is always an abundant store of larve, shrimps, water 
snails and other trout food which find their habitat among the 
weeds, to say nothing of minnows and small fry on the gravelly 
shallows. So that, with a large choice in their feeding, the fish 
soon wax fat and dainty, and while a trout in a rapid mountain 
or moorland strcam has to be on the look-out all day long for 
anything edible which comes within his ken, and even then 
has hard work at times to keep himself in respectable condition, 
a chalk-stream fish is always picksome and hard to please, and 
will only take the fly when the natural insects are sailing down in 
goodly numbers. At other times he is either sheltering among 
the weeds, or else busy with bottom or mid-water food. ; 
In many streams a judicious cast of three flies thrown into 
likely spots with a light and skilful hand will bring fish to the 
" creel fast enough, but this kind of fly fishing for chance fish is 
seldom productive of any sport on a chalk stream. When, 
however, there is a heavy rise, and every trout is busily engaged 
in taking fly, it will be noticed that the fish take up a favour- 
able position just beneath the surface of the stream, and 
feed steadily and persistently in the most quiet and deliberate 
manner possible. A movement of a few inches, a careful 
scrutiny, and a gentle unobtrusive ‘suck’ describes exactly the 
usual manner in which a chalk-stream trout takes his surface 
food. It is quite unlike the rush and the splash with which a 
Scotch or a Devonshire trout leaves the shelter of a submerged 
rock to secure the passing fly, and everything combines to 
make it difficult for the angler to keep out of sight, as well as 
to put the fly over the fish in an effective and natural manner. 
When a chalk-stream fish is feeding at the surface, the angler’s 
fly is always brought into comparison with the natural insects 
floating down, and little sport is to be expected unless the 
artificial fly is most skilfully made and skilfully handled. It 
must be sufficiently neat and natural in appearance to deceive 
any fish, and it must be thrown so as to float ‘cockily’ like the 
real fly it is intended to imitate. 
