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diff --git a/76776-0.txt b/76776-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bd611f --- /dev/null +++ b/76776-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3317 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76776 *** + + + + + + MINOR TACTICS OF THE + CHALK STREAM + + + + + AGENTS + + + =AMERICA= THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + =AUSTRALASIA= OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE + =CANADA= THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. + ST. MARTIN’S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO + =INDIA= MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. + MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY + 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA + +[Illustration] + + ROUGH SPRING IRON BLUE DUN. + OLIVE. NO. 00. + NO. 1. + + GREENWELL’S GREENWELL’S WATERY DUN. + GLORY. GLORY. NO. 00 DOUBLE. + NO. 0. NO. 00 DOUBLE. + + PALE SUMMER PALE SUMMER + GREENWELL’S GREENWELL’S BLACK GNAT. + GLORY. GLORY. NO. 00. + NO. 1. NO. 00 DOUBLE. + + TUP’S TUP’S + INDISPENSABLE. INDISPENSABLE. OLIVE NYMPH. + WET. NO. 0. WET. NO. 00 NO. 0. + DOUBLE. + + DOTTEREL TUP’S + HACKLE. INDISPENSABLE. + TIED FLOATER. + STEWARTWISE. NO. 0. + NO. 00. + + + + + MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM + AND KINDRED STUDIES + + + BY + + G. E. M. SKUES + (_SEAFORTH AND SOFORTH_) + + SECOND EDITION + +[Illustration: [Logo]] + + LONDON + ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK + 1914 + + + + + _First published in March, 1910_ + + + + + =Dedicated= + + _TO MY FRIEND THE DRY-FLY + PURIST, AND TO MY + ENEMIES, IF I HAVE ANY_ + + + + + NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION + + +It would ill become me if I allowed a Second Edition of “Minor Tactics +of the Chalk Stream” to go to the public without expressing to those +writers who have dealt with my volume in the Press my grateful sense of +the generosity with which, whether they were or were not in agreement +with the main object of the work—the endeavour to put the wet fly in +what I conceive to be its right place on the chalk stream—they have one +and all received it. In the fifty or so Press notices, short and long, I +find, without exception, an absence of the harsh word, and a pervading +urbane and kindly spirit which is of the true Waltonian still. Such +fault as has been found has in the main been that I have shown undue +timidity in dealing with the pretensions of the dry-fly purist. To that +criticism I should like to reply that in dedicating my book to my +_friend_ the dry-fly purist I was using no idle word—that in asking him +to make room for the wet fly beside the dry fly as a branch of the art +of chalk-stream angling, I knew myself to be making a claim on him which +he would not willingly concede, and I was determined that no harsh or +provocative word of mine should give offence to any of the many good +friends, good anglers, and good fellows who would not—at the first +onset, at any rate—find themselves able to see eye to eye with me. + +I take leave to hope that the interval since the first publication of +“Minor Tactics” has brought a good few of them round to the view that, +without ousting the dry fly from pride of place as major tactics of the +chalk stream, the wet fly has its subsidiary, but still important, place +of honour in chalk-stream fishing. + + G. E. M. SKUES. + + + + + FOREWORD + + +Rising from the perusal of “Dry-Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice,” on +its publication by Mr. F. M. Halford in 1889, I think I was at one with +most anglers of the day in feeling that the last word had been written +on the art of chalk-stream fishing—so sane, so clear, so comprehensive, +is it; so just and so in accord with one’s own experience. Twenty years +have gone by since then without my having had either occasion or +inclination to go back at all upon this view of that, the greatest work, +in my opinion, which has ever seen the light on the subject of angling +for trout and grayling; and it is still, as regards that side of the +subject with which it deals, all that I then believed it. But one result +of the triumph of the dry fly, of which that work was the crown and +consummation, was the obliteration from the minds of men, in much less +than a generation, of all the wet-fly lore which had served many +generations of chalk-stream anglers well. The effect was stunning, +hypnotic, submerging; and in these days, if one excepts a few eccentrics +who have been nurtured on the wet fly on other waters, and have little +experience of chalk streams, one would find few with any notion that +anything but the dry fly could be effectively used upon Hampshire +rivers, or that the wet fly was ever used there. I was for years myself +under the spell, and it is the purpose of the ensuing pages to tell, for +the benefit of the angling community, by what processes, by what stages, +I have been led into a sustained effort to recover for this generation, +and to transmute into forms suited to the modern conditions of sport on +the chalk stream, the old wet-fly art, to be used as a supplement to, +and in no sense to supplant or rival, the beautiful art of which Mr. F. +M. Halford is the prophet. How far my effort has been successful I must +leave my readers to judge. I myself feel that in making it I have +widened my angling horizon, and that I have added enormously to the +interest and charm of my angling days as well as to my chances of +success, and that, too, by the use of no methods which the most rigid +purist could rightly condemn, but by a difficult, delicate, fascinating, +and entirely legitimate form of the art, well worthy of the naturalist +sportsman. + +In the course of my too rare excursions to the river-side, I have +elaborated some devices, methods of attack and handling, which I have +found of service, some applicable to wet-fly, some to dry-fly fishing, +or to both. In the hope that these may be of interest or service, I have +included papers upon them. + +In conclusion I should like to express my gratitude to the proprietors +of the _Field_, for permission to reprint a number of papers contributed +by me to that journal over the signature “Seaforth and Soforth,” which +come within the scope of the work; and to Mr. H. T. Sheringham, for his +invaluable advice and assistance in the arrangement of these papers. + + G. E. M. SKUES. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION vii + FOREWORD ix + + CHAPTER + I. OF THE BEGINNING OF THINGS 1 + OF THE INQUIRING MIND 1 + + II. SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN NATURE 8 + OF THE DROWNING OF DUNS AND OTHER INSECTS 8 + OF THE STAGES IN A RISE OF DUNS 9 + + III. SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART 14 + OF MEDICINE FOR BULGERS 14 + OF UNDER-WATER TAKING, ITS INDICATIONS, AND THE TIME + TO STRIKE 17 + OF ROUGH WATER AND GREY-BROWN SHADOW 20 + + IV. SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 24 + OF WET-FLY DRESSINGS FOR CHALK STREAMS 24 + OF THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR OF TYING SILK 29 + OF THE IMITATION OF NYMPHS, ETC. 30 + + V. SPECIAL CONDITIONS AND WET-FLY SOLUTIONS 36 + NERVES 36 + OF THE TROUT OF GLASSY GLIDES 38 + OF THE WET FLY IN POOLS, BAYS, AND EDDIES 41 + OF THE JUDICIOUS USE OF THE MOON 44 + OF THE WET-FLY OIL TIP 45 + OF GENERALSHIP AND THE WET FLY 47 + A POTTED TROUT, AND ONE OTHER 49 + OF TWO SATURDAY AFTERNOONS 54 + + VI. UNCLASSIFIED 57 + OF HOVERING 57 + OF THE PORPOISE ROLL 59 + + VII. SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS 60 + OF THE RELATION OF PATTERN TO POSITION 60 + OF THE USE OF SPINNERS 63 + OF GENERAL FEEDERS 67 + ON ATTENTION TO CASUAL FEEDERS 70 + OF THE FREQUENTATION OF DITCHES 73 + OF THE NEGOTIATION OF TAILERS 76 + OF THE FASCINATION OF BRIDGES 78 + + VIII. MAINLY TACTICAL 81 + OF THE DELIBERATE DRAG 81 + IN THE GLASS EDGE 84 + OF THE CROSS-COUNTRY CAST 87 + WHAT TUSSOCKS ARE FOR 89 + OF THE ALLEGED MARCH BROWN 91 + OF GENERAL FLIES 92 + + IX. CONSIDERATIONS MORAL, TACTICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND + INCIDENTAL 95 + OF FAITH 95 + OF THE BANK OF VANTAGE 98 + OF COURAGE AND THE JEOPARDIZING OF TUPPENCE + HA’PENNY 103 + OF IMPOSSIBLE PLACES 105 + OF THE USE OF THE LANDING-NET 109 + OF THE WEEDING TROUT 115 + INCIDENTALLY OF THE LIGHT ROD ON CHALK STREAMS 117 + AND OF WET-FLY CASTING 120 + + X. FRANKLY IRRELEVANT 122 + A DRY FLY MEMORY 122 + + XI. ETHICS OF THE WET FLY 126 + + XII. APOLOGIA 131 + + + + + MINOR TACTICS OF THE + CHALK STREAM, + AND KINDRED STUDIES + + + + + CHAPTER I + OF THE BEGINNING OF THINGS + + + OF THE INQUIRING MIND. + +I read recently in that fine novel, “A Superfluous Woman,” a sentence +enunciating a principle of wide application, to which anglers might with +advantage give heed: “We ought not so much to name mistakes disaster as +the common practice of servile imitation and faint-hearted +acquiescence.” In no art are its practitioners more slavishly content +“jurare in verba magistri” than in angling. Tradition and authority are +so much, and individual observation and experiment so little. + +There is, indeed, this excuse for the novice, that, going back to the +authorities of the past after much experiment, he will find that they +know in substance all, or practically all, that, apart from the advance +of mechanical conveniences and entomological science, is known in the +present day. The difficulty is to dissociate the dead knowledge, which +is reading or imitation, from the live knowledge, which is experience. +And if these pages have any purpose more than another, it is not to lay +down the law or to dogmatize, but to urge brother anglers to keep an +open and observant mind, to experiment, and to bring to their angling, +not book knowledge, but the result of their own observation, trials, and +experiments—failures as well as successes. + +In all humility is this written, for I look back upon many years when it +was my sole ambition to follow in the steps of the masters of +chalk-stream angling, and to do what was laid down for me—that, and no +other; and I look back with some shame at the slowness to take a hint +from experience which has marked my angling career. It was in the year +1892, after some patient years of dry-fly practice, that I had my first +experience of the efficacy of the wet fly on the Itchen. It was a +September day, at once blazing and muggy. Black gnats were thick upon +the water, and from 9.30 a.m. or so the trout were smutting freely. + +In those days, with “Dry-Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice” at my +fingers’ ends, I began with the prescription, “Pink Wickham on 00 hook,” +followed it with “Silver Sedge on 00 hook, Red Quill on 00 hook, orange +bumble, and furnace.” I also tried two or three varieties of smut, and I +rang the changes more than once. My gut was gossamer, and, honestly, I +don’t think I made more mistakes than usual; but three o’clock arrived, +and my creel was still “clean,” when I came to a bend from which ran, +through a hatch, a small current of water which fed a carrier. Against +the grating which protected the hatch-hole was generally a large pile of +weed, and to-day was no exception. Against it lay collected a film of +scum, alive with black gnats, and among them I saw a single dark olive +dun lying spent. I had seen no others of his kind during the day, but I +knotted on a Dark Olive Quill on a single cipher hook, and laid siege to +a trout which was smutting steadily in the next little bay. The fly was +a shop-tied one, beautiful to look at when new, but as a floater it was +no success. The hackle was a hen’s, and the dye only accentuated its +natural inclination to sop up water. The oil tip had not yet arrived, +and so it came about that, after the wetting it got in the first +recovery, it no sooner lit on the water on the second cast than it went +under. A moment later I became aware of a sort of crinkling little swirl +in the water, ascending from the place where I conceived my fly might +be. I was somewhat too quick in putting matters to the proof, and when +my line came back to me there was no fly. I mounted another, and +assailed the next fish, and to my delight exactly the same thing +occurred, except that this time I did not strike too hard. + +The trout’s belly contained a solid ball of black gnats, and not a dun +of any sort. The same was the case with all the four brace more which I +secured in the next hour or so by precisely the same methods. Yet each +took the Dark Olive at once when offered under water, while all day the +trout had been steadily refusing the recognized floating lures +recommended by the highest authority. It was a lesson which ought to +have set me thinking and experimenting, but it didn’t. I put by the +experience for use on the next September smutting day, and I have never +had quite such another, so close, so sweltering, with such store of +smuts, and the trout taking them so steadily and so freely. + +It was a September day two or three years later when I had another hint +as pointed and definite as one could get from the hind-leg of a mule, +but I didn’t take it. There was a cross-stream wind from the west, with +a favour of north in it, and all the duns—and there were droves of +them—drifted in little fleets close hugging the east bank, where the +trout were lined up in force to deal with them, and feeding steadily. +Fishing from the west bank, I stuck to four fish which I satisfied +myself were good ones, and in over two hours’ fishing I never put them +down. I tried over them all my repertoire. I battered them with Dark +Olive Quill, Medium Olive Quill, Gold-ribbed Hare’s Ear, Red Quill (two +varieties), Grey Quill and Blue Quill, Ogden’s Fancy, and Wickham, and I +left them rising at the end with undiminished energy, and went and sat +down and had my lunch. Then I sought another fish, and began again, when +suddenly it occurred to me that I had not tried the old-fashioned +mole’s-fur-bodied, snipe-winged Blue Dun. I had only a solitary +specimen, and that was tied with a hen’s hackle; but such as it was, and +greatly distrusting its floating powers, I tied it on. I did not err in +my distrust, for after a cast or two it was hopelessly water-logged. I +dried it as well as I could in my handkerchief, and despatched it once +more on its mission. It went under almost as it lit, just above a +capital trout, but for all that it was taken immediately. The next +trout, and the next, and the next, took it with equal promptitude; one +was small, and had to go back, but the others were quite nice average +fish. + +Then, in my eagerness, I was too hard on my gossamer gut when the next +trout took my fly, and he kept it. I had no more of these Blue Duns, and +I did not get another fish till the evening. + +Still I did not realize that I was on the edge of an adventure, nor yet +did I realize whither I was tending when Mr. F. M. Halford told me how a +well known Yorkshire angler had been fishing with him on the Test, and, +by means of a wet fly admirably fished without the slightest drag, had +contrived to basket some trout on a difficult water. + +Indeed, it was several years later that, after fluking upon a successful +experience of the wet fly on a German river which in general was a +distinctively dry-fly stream, I began to speculate seriously upon the +possibility of a systematic use of the wet fly in aid of the dry fly +upon chalk streams. In conversation with the late Mr. Godwin (held in +affectionate remembrance by many members of the Fly-fishers’ Club, and, +indeed, by all who knew him), who had seen the very beginnings of the +dry fly on the Itchen, and remembered well and had practised the methods +which preceded it, I learned how, fishing downstream with long and +flexible rods (thirteen or fourteen feet long), and keeping the light +hair reel-line off the water as much as possible, these early fathers of +the craft had drifted their wet flies over the tails of weeds, where the +trout lay in open gravel patches, and caught baskets of which the modern +dry-fly man might well be proud. + +I gathered, however, that a downstream ruffle of wind was a practical +necessity; and as I could not pick my days, and such as I could take +were few and far between, I realized that, even if they appealed to +me—which they did not—these methods would not do for me, as I might, and +often did, find the river glassy smooth, but that, if I were to succeed, +it must be by a wet-fly modification of the dry-fly method of upstream +casting to individual fish. + +I could not believe that the habits of the trout were so changed as to +make this impossible, and I began to look for opportunities to +experiment. The bulging trout presented the most obvious case, yet it +was rather by a chain of circumstance than by the straightforward +reasoning which now seems so simple and obvious that I was led into +experiments along this line. + +How I effected some sort of solution of the problem with a variant of +Green well’s Glory, and later on with Tup’s Indispensable, is detailed +elsewhere, as also are my experiments with the trout of glassy glides +(who seldom break the surface to take a winged insect, presumably +because of the drag), together with other fumblings in the search of +truth; but from that time forth I have seldom neglected an opportunity +to test the wet fly on chalk-stream trout. It may be that on many +occasions I have used the wet fly when the dry would have been more +lucrative. On the other hand, I have found it furnish me with sport on +occasions and in places when and where the dry fly offered no +encouragement, nor any prospect of aught but casual and fluky success, +and I have provided myself with a method which forms an admirable +supplement to the dry fly, and has frequently given me a good basket in +apparently hopeless conditions, and in the smoothest of water and the +brightest of weather. + + + + + CHAPTER II + SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN NATURE + + + OF THE DROWNING OF DUNS AND OTHER INSECTS. + +It has been advanced as an argument against the use of the wet fly, that +duns and the other small insects which drift down upon the surface of a +stream are never seen by the fish under water, and that a wet fly is +therefore an unnatural object, especially if winged. “Never” is a big +word, and I venture to think the case is overstated. I have watched an +eddy with little swirling whirlpools in it for an hour together, and +again and again I have seen little groups of flies caught in one or +other of the whirls, sucked under and thrown scatterwise through the +water, to drift some distance before again reaching the surface. + +Anyone who has kept water-insects in spirit for observation or mounting +is aware that they readily become water-logged, and by no means insist +on floating. Again, we have it on the best authority that certain of the +spinners descend to the river-bed to lay their eggs, and probably, that +function performed, they ascend again through the water, giving the +trout a chance while in transit. Thus the trout may well be familiar +with winged insects under water. Even if he were not, it may be doubted +whether he is sufficiently intelligent to reject a thing which he +fancies he has found good to eat on the surface merely because it +happens to be below. Indeed, experience so conclusively proves that +trout will take the winged fly under water that those who repudiate both +these propositions are upon the horns of a dilemma. Many hackled flies +are more or less—and generally less—careful imitations of nymphs or +larvæ. But of these more anon. + + + OF THE STAGES IN A RISE OF DUNS. + +It has often been the subject of admiring comment that, before ever the +angler can see a single fly in air or upon water, the trout will have +lined up under the banks, and settled at the tails of weed-beds, and +have begun to take toll of insect life; and many have commented on the +startling unanimity with which trout begin to feed all at once all over +a river or length. Some seem to suppose that, with a quick appreciation +of values of temperature, atmosphere, barometric pressure, and what not, +the trout discern when the flies will rise, and are there in readiness. +Is it necessary to suppose anything far-fetched? It has often seemed to +me that the swallows and martins can and do detect in advance the +preparations for a rise in the swarming of nymphs released from weed or +gravel, or whatever their particular fastness may be, and borne down the +current. This precedes the actual hatch for a period greater or less +according to temperature, pressure, and perhaps other little-understood +conditions; and so it happens that no trout that is not “by ordinar’” +stupid could fail to appreciate that game is afoot, and to put himself +in position to enjoy the sport. + +If one goes down to the bottom of the High in Winchester, near by King +Alfred’s statue, and peers between the railings, one may generally see +several brace of handsome trout; and if one takes some new bread and +presses it together in little balls hard enough to make it sink, but not +sink too fast, and throws it to the trout, one may see some most +beautiful catching, neater than that of the most finished fielder in the +slips. So when the nigh-upon-hatching nymphs are being hurried down, +your trout shall enjoy some pretty fielding before the bulk of the +quarry come near enough to the surface to attract attention to the +trout’s movements by any swirl or break on the surface. If the trout be +lying out on the weeds from which the nymphs are issuing, you shall see +the trout swashing about in the shallow water covering the weed-beds, in +pursuit of the nymphs, and presenting the phenomenon known as “bulging.” +This is the first stage of the rise. + +Presently, as the swarm of drifting nymphs becomes more numerous, +escaping units, first in sparse, then in increasing numbers, reach the +surface, burst their swathing envelopes, and spread their canvas to the +gales as _subimagines_. Presently the trout find attention to the winged +fly more advantageous—as presenting more food, or food obtained with +less exertion than the nymphs—and turn themselves to it in earnest. This +is the second stage. Often it is much deferred. Conditions of which we +know nothing keep back the hatch, perhaps send many of the nymphs back +to cover to await a more favourable opportunity another day; so it +occasionally happens that, while the river seems mad with bulging fish, +the hatch of fly that follows or partly coincides with this orgy is +insignificant. But, good, bad, or indifferent, it measures the extent of +the dry-fly purist’s opportunity. + +Good, bad, or indifferent, it presently peters out, and at times with +startling suddenness all the life and movement imparted to the surface +by the rings of rising fish are gone, and it would be easy for one who +knew not the river to say: “There are no trout in it.” For all that, +there are pretty sure to be left a sprinkling, often more than a +sprinkling, of unsatisfied fish which are willing to feed, and can be +caught if the angler knows how; and these will hang about for a while +until they, too, give up in despair and go home, or seek consolation in +tailing. Often these will take a dry fly, but an imitation of a nymph or +a broken or submerged fly is a far stronger temptation. This is the +third stage. + +Now, the dry-fly purist is quite entitled to his own opinions, and to +restrict himself to the second stage; but if there be other anglers who +are willing to vary their methods, who can and do catch their trout, not +only in the second stage, but also in the first and the third, and if +their methods spoil no sport for others, who shall say that they are +wrong in availing themselves of all three stages of a rise of duns? + +I remember well one day late in May when the three stages were +excellently well marked. There was a bright sun, a light breeze from the +east with a touch of south in it, and I was on the water about 9.30, and +took the left bank, with the wind behind my hand. No fish were rising, +but on reaching the water-side I almost stumbled on top of a trout which +stood poised over a clear gravel patch under my own bank. Fortunately, +however, I withdrew without his seeing or suspecting me. My pale-dressed +Greenwell’s Glory trailed in the water, and I delivered it without +flick, well wet, a foot or so above the spot where I had marked my fish. +There was no break of the surface, but a sort of smooth shallow hump of +the water about the size of a dinner-plate, with a dip in the middle, as +the fish turned and I pulled into him. Presently I saw a brace bulging +vigorously over some bright green weeds. It was not the first or the +tenth time that my sunken Greenwell covered the fish that one of them +came; but when he did there was no doubt about it, and he joined number +one in the basket. Two more followed in a short time, unable to resist +the same lure. Then it seemed to fail of its effect, though the river +was freely dotted with rings, and after wasting much time I tumbled to +the situation, and changed to a floating No. 1 Whitchurch—most effective +of Yellow Duns—on a cipher hook. The effect was immediate, but I had put +it off too long, and when I looked up from basketing my third trout to +the Whitchurch the rise had worn out. But I was not done yet. I changed +to a Tup’s Indispensable dressed to sink, and, fishing upstream wet in +likely runs and places, I made up my five brace before I knocked off for +lunch. + + + + + CHAPTER III + SUBAQUEOUS HAPPENINGS IN ART + + + OF MEDICINE FOR BULGERS. + +For many a year bulging trout were the despair of my life, and in those +days I would gladly have said “Amen” to the opinion expressed in a +letter to the _Fishing Gazette_ of March 13, 1909, by the angler who +writes over the pen-name of “Ballygunge,” that when trout were bulging +you “might as well chuck your hat at them” as a fly. Many times had I +vainly plied them with Gold-ribbed Hare’s Ear, as recommended by Mr. F. +M. Halford, as well as most of the current imitations of duns on the +water, and Wickhams, Tags, and other fancy flies to boot. Hoping against +hope, I never gave up trying for those aggravating fish, and one day, +towards the end of a bad exhibition of bulging by the trout, I actually +caught a brace, and lost a third, on a Pope’s Green Nondescript—a dun +tied with starling wing, red hackle and whisk, and a dark green body +ribbed with broad flat gold. + +On many occasions since I have found that fly kill well at the beginning +of a rise, and it may be that on the occasion spoken of the trout which +I got were on the verge of giving up bulging in favour of the winged +dun. But I was not satisfied. Then the recollection of a visit to the +Tweed struck me with the notion that on that water all the trout +practically bulged all the time, and that with their wet-fly patterns +Tweed anglers were able to give a good account of themselves, and I +searched among Tweed patterns for the nearest analogue to Pope’s Green +Nondescript. I thought I found it in Greenwell’s Glory, if varied by +exchanging for the hen blackbird wing a starling wing. The likeness was +not very exact, but it was close enough to experiment on. The point that +I wanted to achieve was to combine with the colours of Pope’s Green +Nondescript the type of dressing special to the Tweed Greenwell’s Glory. +Rough, slim upright wings, well split, and standing well apart when wet, +made of several thicknesses of feather so as to absorb water, and not to +give it up readily when cast; body spare, consisting of the waxed +primrose tying silk only, closely ribbed with fine gold wire, and one or +at most two turns of a furnace hen’s hackle with ginger points, no whisk +(whisks only help flotation), and a rather rank hook to take the fly +under. The type of dressing is to be found applied to all his patterns +in Webster’s “Angler and the Loop Rod.” + +Whether it was because I had faith in my medicine, or whether any other +cause was at work, I know not, but the experiment was, despite some +misses due to failure to judge the right moment to pull home the hook, +an immediate success. + +Bulging trout are bold feeders, and seem to mind being cast over less +than do those which are taking surface food; but they are much more +difficult to cover accurately, because they rush from side to side and +up and down, and the odds are that, if you cast to one spot, the trout +is careering off in pursuit of a nymph to right or left of it. But once +the trout sees the fly, the chances of his taking it are far better than +are the chances that a surface-feeding trout will take the floating dun +which covers him. The fly is allowed to drag in the stream, so as to be +thoroughly wet, and is then cast upstream to the feeding fish in all +respects like a floating fly, except that it is not dried or allowed to +float. The weight of the reel-line will probably be enough to dry the +gut, so that the risk of lining your trout is minimized, only the fly +and the first link or so of gut going under before it reaches him. I +found it best to tie this pattern on gut, and, dressed as described, it +has been worth many a good bulger to me, apart from its value for +general purposes. + +Later on the value of Tup’s Indispensable fished wet impressed me much, +and its resemblance to a nymph induced me to give it a trial upon +bulging trout. For wet-fly purposes this is as near the dressing as I am +at liberty to give: Primrose tying silk lapped down the hook from head +to tail, a pale blue or creamy whisk of hen’s feather as soft as +possible and not long, three or four turns of coarser untwisted primrose +sewing silk at the tail, body rather fat, of a mixed dubbing of a creamy +pink (invented by Mr. R. S. Austin, the well known angler and +fly-dresser of Tiverton), and a soft blue dun hackle, very short in the +fibre, at the head, the dressing being preferably finished at the +shoulder behind the hackle. When this fly is thoroughly soaked it has a +wonderfully soft and translucent, insect-like effect. It proved even +more successful than Greenwell’s Glory, and with one or other I am +almost always able to give a good account of bulgers instead of coming +empty away. + + OF UNDER-WATER TAKING, ITS INDICATIONS, AND THE TIME TO STRIKE. + +Friends with whom I have discussed the use of the upstream wet fly on +chalk streams have frequently said to me: “But how are you to know when +the trout takes, and when to strike?” It is a very pertinent question, +and the answer is not to be given in a word. Often the indications which +bid you pull home the hook are so subtle and inconspicuous that the +angler is at a loss to account for the miracle which is evidenced by his +hooped rod and protesting reel, but even in the roughest water something +helps the angler to divine the moment for action. In a subsequent +section, under the heading “The Grey-Brown Shadow,” will be found an +account of a day’s sport with the wet fly in an upstream wind so rough +as to throw the river into waves. The flash of the fish as it turns to +take the fly may often be seen, so dimly and so momentarily as to be apt +to escape notice if one does not know what to look for; but I have on +several occasions even divined it through water which reflected a bright +white glare, and seemed opaque to the eye. If on these occasions a +hooked trout had not proved the truth of my observation, I could not +have sworn to having certainly seen anything move; but there through the +surface, which looked at the angle of view impenetrable to the eye, I +did seem to glimpse a faint pink flash that corresponded to no movement +on the surface, and there was the fish soundly hooked, and no fluke +about it. + +Often under an opposite bank, when the light will not permit you to see +your gut or fly, you will see a trout suddenly ascending to near the top +of the water, and as suddenly sinking; then, if you tighten, ten to one +your hook is firmly in his jaws, and you see him shaking his head +savagely at the unexpected restraint upon his liberty ere he makes his +first rush. + +When fish are bulging, the moment of taking the fly is generally marked +by a swirl, and the angler should strike immediately. Fortunately, a +wet-fly strike, even if misconceived or mistimed, is far less likely, so +long as the fish is clean missed and not lined, to alarm him than is a +strike with the dry fly, because the wet fly comes out through the water +at a point far below the fish instead of being drawn along the surface. + +In glassy glides, which are always fast water, one either sees the fish +turn to the fly, or, if the light prevents it, one sees a little +crinkle, or break, work up through the water to the surface, which warns +the angler to strike. Often the gut lying on the surface goes under as +the fish draws in the fly, and alike in daylight and moonlight it acts +as a float; and even if the fly be taken too deep below water for any +other indication to be in time, it will warn the angler to attend to +business. An ingenious angler, as elsewhere explained, has conceived and +utilized successfully the idea of oiling his gut cast for fishing wet +directly upstream in rapid water, and an excellent device it is for its +occasion. + +But perhaps the commonest indication of an under-water taking in water +of slow or moderate pace is an almost imperceptible shallow humping of +the water over the trout. It is caused by the turn of the fish as he +takes the fly, and when the angler sees it it is time to fasten. If he +waits until the swirl has reached and broken the surface (and it may not +be violent enough to do so), he may be too late. If the fly drops +directly over the fish, that shallow hump seems often almost +simultaneous with the lighting of the fly; but if the cast be wide, your +trout will not infrequently dart a yard or more to a wet fly—when for a +dry fly he would do no such thing—and then the angler has a warning of +the coming of the shallow hump on the surface which tells him that the +iron is hot. It may be questioned, however, whether it is not more +difficult to time correctly the strike for which one has had such +warning than one which comes without warning. + +In my experience, the trout which takes under-water is generally very +soundly hooked. A trout taking floaters on the surface frequently sips +them in through a narrowly-opened slit of mouth, but an under-water +feeder draws in the fly by an extension of the gills which carries it in +with a full gulp of water. + +In the effort to divine the indications which call for striking with the +wet fly I confess I find a subtle fascination and charm, and, when +success attends me, a satisfaction beside which the successful hooking +of a fish which rises to my floating fly seems second-rate in its +sameness and comparative obviousness and monotony of achievement. + + + OF ROUGH WATER AND GREY-BROWN SHADOW. + +It was blowing up freshly from the south-west as the train ran into +Winchester one April a year or two back, and ere the water-meadows were +reached the distinct bite in the wind had given ample warning that, +maugre the crisp yellow sunshine, 11.30 clanging from the cathedral +spires left ample time to get down to the water-side and put rod and +tackle together before the big dark olives or the smaller and rather +lighter olives, which warn one to put up a Gold-ribbed Hare’s Ear, put +in an appearance. April was three parts through, yet the backwardness of +the season made conditions correspond more nearly to three weeks earlier +in the normal year. + +Soon everything was in readiness, and a couple of dark Rough Olives, +tied on gut, with dark starling wing, heron herl body dyed in onion dye +and ribbed with fine gold wire, and hackle and whisk of ginger, lightly +dyed olive, were put into the damper to soak, on the chance that the wet +fly might pay better than the dry. + +Noon and the quarter-past chimed from the belfry, and then a big dark +olive drifted on to an eddy near by, and, lifted out on the meshes of a +landing-net, was identified. The hint was enough. One of the flies in +soak—tied on No. 1 hooks—was knotted on, and the surface was scanned for +the first dimple. Presently it was located—such a tiny, infinitesimal, +dacelike dimple, hinting rather than proving the movement of a trout. It +was hardly noticeable in the turmoil made by the strong ruffle of the +upstream wind against the somewhat full current of the stream. It was +rather far across for accurate casting in such a wind, and presently a +sudden gust slammed the line down upon the spot with such a splash as no +self-respecting trout could be expected to endure. + +A movement upstream was prescribed by the conditions, and presently +another dimple like the last was spotted in a more favourable position. +It was repeated after an interval, but no fly was to be seen on the +surface; so, without an attempt at drying, the Rough Olive was +despatched on his mission, and lit a foot or so above the spot. Again, +and once more, it did so, and then there was a hint of a grey-brown +flicker in the hollow of a wave. By instinct rather than reason the hand +went up, and the arch of the rod showed that the steel had gone home. In +due course the trout—a fish of fourteen inches—was landed, and the +angler proceeded upward. + +He soon found, however, that to reach and cover the trout satisfactorily +it behoved him to cross, and tackle them from the other side, and he +made his way to the footbridge. On the way down, on the main stream he +saw another hint of a rise in midstream, where the waves were highest. +The wind served him well, and the fly was over the trout in no time. For +four or five casts there was no response; then again that grey-brown +shadow for a moment in the trough of a wave, mounting rod, a screaming +reel, and a vigorous trout was battling for his life. + +Arrived presently at the desired spot, the wet Rough Olive was taken off +and a dry-fly pattern mounted and duly oiled, and offered to three fish +in succession, with the result that they all went down. Then back once +more to the wet-fly, and thrice more ere 1.30 struck there was the faint +flash of grey-brown under water, the same instinctive response, a +spirited battle for life (successful in one instance), and then the rise +petered out and not a fish was stirring. And though at 2.30 a strong +rise of the smaller olive came on, and lasted till 4.30, keeping +hundreds of swallows and martins busy, yet not another fish put up a +neb. Perhaps it was because the sun had gone in. + +There are those who wax indignant at the use of the wet fly on dry-fly +waters. Yet it has a special fascination. The indications which tell +your dry-fly angler when to strike are clear and unmistakable, but those +which bid a wet-fly man raise his rod-point and draw in the steel are +frequently so subtle, so evanescent and impalpable to the senses, that, +when the bending rod assures him that he has divined aright, he feels an +ecstasy as though he had performed a miracle each time. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES + + + OF WET-FLY DRESSINGS FOR CHALK STREAMS. + +Assuming that we have made up our minds to test the wet fly upon chalk +streams, it must be taken as an axiom that the ordinary patterns of the +dry fly will not do. They are built to dry and to float. The patterns +required must be built to soak and to sink. Therefore bodies and hackles +which throw the water must be rejected in favour of bodies and hackles +which take up the water or readily enter it. So dubbed bodies in place +of quills, hen hackles in place of cock’s, and of these a minimum of +turns in place of a maximum; and if whisks are used, they, too, must be +soft and soppy. For the same reason, wing material, if employed, should +be so arranged as to take up the maximum of water, and to let it go as +unwillingly as possible. Furthermore, the bulk of material in proportion +to the hook metal must be reduced as far as possible. + +Given these requirements, let us look around, as I did, among all the +various systems of wet-fly dressing in use, from John o’ Groat’s to +Land’s End, and see what features we ought to borrow from them. If we +make up our minds, as I think we shall, that it is desirable to expose +the body of our fly freely, we shall not adopt any system which lays the +wings low over the back of the fly, that type being designed to secure +what is called “a good entry” for a dragging fly, and we have nothing to +do with dragging flies or any form of river raking or dredging, or with +any flies which, like the Devonshire types, carry superabundance of +bright cock’s hackles. So we are limited to the systems which dress +their flies with upright wings, like the Tweed and Clyde types, and to +the soft hackled Yorkshire style. + +The conditions, however, of our waters confine us to tiny patterns—Nos. +0 and 00 hooks in the vast majority of cases, and occasionally No. 1—and +the supply of tiny soft absorbent hackles from birds other than poultry, +sufficiently small to leave the body well exposed, is hardly to be had. +So, taking one consideration with another, it would seem that the Tweed +and Clyde patterns, being used on a broad and in many places +equablyflowing river, will have advantages enough to invite a trial. + +Now, what are the features of the Tweed and Clyde patterns? First there +is the spare body, dressed with tying silk only, with or without wire +ribbing, or lightly dubbed with soft fur, making an absorbent dubbing; +then a small and lightly-dressed soft hackle, two turns at the outside, +close up behind a pair of wings tied in a bunch, and either left single +or, preferably for our purposes, split in equal portions, and divided +with the figure-of-eight application of the tying silk behind the wings +and in front of the head, the whole tied on a rank, and not too light, +round-bend hook. + +It will be suggested that the trout does not see the winged dun under +water. That is approximately, though not quite absolutely, true; but for +all that, being in some respects rather a stupid person, if size and +colour are right, he will not make much bones of the position of the fly +with reference to the surface being incorrect. It might be supposed, +again, that a hackled pattern would better suggest the nymph stage than +a winged pattern. This may be true, but the theory has yet to be worked +out in much detail before one can dogmatize about it. Elsewhere my +preliminary efforts in this direction are described. Here I could say +that the wings built up of a length of feather rolled into a bunch have +the advantage of taking up a lot of water, and not releasing it readily; +and they also assist to let the fly down more lightly on the water than +so lightly dressed a fly would fall but for the wings. To let a hackled +fly down as lightly, one would need a lighter wire and a larger hackle. +The wings also help the fly to swim correctly in the water, with the +weight of the straight, unsnecked, round-bend hook as the counterpoise +to the parachute action of the wings. + +My own belief is that wet flies tied on gut swim better and hook better +than those tied on eyed hooks. As the drying action of casting is +reduced to a minimum, they are not so ready to go at the neck as when +used as dry flies; but if the angler prefers it, there is no reason why +he should not use eyed hooks, though snecked bends of any kind and +upturned eyes are deprecated. Down-eyed hooks, round, unsnecked, +square-bend, and Limerick, in the order named, are recommended. + +When immediate sinking in rather fast water is required, additional +weight can be got by tying on a second hook, and making the fly what is +technically known as a “double.” These are more easily tied on gut than +on eyed hooks, though there is a maker who supplies eyed hooks for +doubles in sizes Nos. 1, 0, and 00, one packet containing the eyed hook, +and the other the shorter-shanked companion hook to be lashed on. In +either case the hooks have to be separated with the thumb-nail, so as to +stand at an angle of 45 to 60 degrees before using. Lest it should be +suggested that these double hooks, fished wet, lend themselves to a form +of snatching, let me say that I can only recall a single instance of a +trout being hooked on a wet double otherwise than fairly in the mouth, +and in the course of my experiments I have given them an extensive +trial. + +The range of wet-fly patterns required is not extensive. I have found +the following serve all practical purposes: + + 1. ROUGH OLIVE. + + _Wings_: Darkest starling. + + _Body_: Heron herl from wing feather dyed brown-olive, and ribbed + with fine gold wire. + + _Legs_: Dirty brown-olive hen hackle, with dark centre and + yellowish-brown points. + + _Hook_: No. 1. + + 2. GREENWELL’S GLORY. + + _Wings_: Hen blackbird, dark starling, medium starling, or light + starling (lighter as season advances). + + _Body_: Primrose or yellow tying silk, more or less waxed (lighter + as season advances), ribbed with fine gold wire. + + _Legs_: Dark furnace hen hackle (black centre, with cinnamon + points) to medium honey dun (lighter as season advances). + + _Hook_: No. 1, 0, or 00. + + 3. BLUE DUN. + + _Wings_: Snipe. + + _Body_: Water-rat on primrose or yellow tying silk. Vary body by + dressing with undyed heron’s herl from the wing, and ribbing with + fine gold or silver wire. + + _Legs_: Medium blue hen. + + _Hook_: No. 1 or 0. + + 4. IRON BLUE. + + _Wings_: Tomtit’s tail. + + _Body_: Mole’s fur on claret tying silk. + + _Legs_: Honey-dun hen with red points. + + _Hook_: No. 0 or 00. + + 5. WATERY DUN. + + _Wings_: Palest starling. + + _Body_: Hare’s poll or buff opossum on primrose tying silk. + + _Legs_: Ginger hen’s hackle. + + _Hook_: No. 00. + + 6. HARE’S EAR. + + _Wings_: Dark or Medium starling. + + _Body_: Hare’s fur from lobe at root of ear; rib, narrowest gold + tinsel or fine gold wire. + + _Legs_: A few fibres picked out or placed between the strands of + the silk and spun. + + _Hook_: No. 1 or 0. + + 7. BLACK GNAT. + + _Wings_: Palest snipe rolled and reversed. + + _Body_: Black tying silk with two turns of black ostrich herl or + knob of black silk at shoulder. + + _Legs_: Black hen or cock starling’s crest, two turns at most. + + _Hook_: No. 00. + +It will be observed that hooks a size larger than those employed for +floaters can often be used. + +The very short range of hackled patterns is dealt with later. + + + OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COLOUR OF TYING SILK IN DUBBED FLIES. + +Years ago I spent a week upon the Teme, fishing wet, and I remember +looking down one sunny morning upon my cast in shallow water, and being +struck by the appearance of my Yellow Dun. The body was dubbed with +primrose wool, but though, while dry or in the air, every turn of the +tying silk was completely hidden, yet, looking down upon the fly in the +water, I could see every turn distinctly, and the dubbing was scarcely +noticeable, and I was glad that the tying silk harmonized so perfectly +with the hue of the dubbing. + +The importance of the base colour of the tying silk was still more +strongly brought home to me a day or two later. I had tied some +imitations of a pale watery dun which was on the water with a pale +starling wing, light ginger hackle and whisk, and a mixture of opossum +and hare’s poll for dubbing; but some I had tied with pale orange silk, +and some with that rich maroon colour called Red Ant in Mr. Aldam’s +series of silks. The grayling took those tied with pale orange freely, +but would not look at those tied with Red Ant. + +It maybe of less consequence for floating flies, but for wet flies I +have since always been careful to have the tying silk either harmonious +with the colour of the natural subimago, or corresponding to the colour +of the spinner. For instance, for an Iron Blue Dun I should use claret +silk dubbed with mole’s fur or water-rat; for the old-fashioned mole’s +fur Blue Dun, primrose to heighten the olive effect in the dark blue; +primrose silk also for a Hare’s Ear; in the Willow-Fly, orange silk +under the mole’s fur or water-rat; in the Grannom, green very darkly +waxed, or black; and so on. The fact is that the transparency of fur and +feather is marvellous. A starling’s wing looks much denser than a dun’s, +but place it over print, and you can read every word through; and fur is +practically as transparent when wet. + + + OF THE IMITATION OF NYMPHS, CADDIS, ALDER LARVÆ, AND SHRIMPS. + +For some time after my introduction to Tup’s Indispensable I used it +only as a dry fly, but one July I put it over a fish without avail, and +cast it a second time without drying it. It was dressed with a soft +hackle, and at once went under, and the trout turned at it and missed. +Again I cast, and again the trout missed, to fasten soundly at the next +offer. It was a discovery for me, and I tried the pattern wet over a +number of fish on the same shallow, with most satisfactory results. I +thus satisfied myself that Tup’s Indispensable could be used as a wet +fly; and, indeed, when soaked its colours merge and blend so beautifully +that it is hardly singular; and it was a remarkable imitation of a nymph +I got from a trout’s mouth. + +The next step was to try it on bulging fish, and to my great delight I +found it even more attractive than Greenwell’s Glory. It was the +foundation of a small range of nymph patterns, but for under-water +feeders, whether bulging or otherwise, I seldom need anything but Tup’s +Indispensable, dressed with a very short, soft henny hackle in place of +the bright honey or rusty dun used for the floating pattern. The next I +tried was a Blue-winged Olive. There was a hatch of this pernicious +insect one afternoon. The floating pattern is always a failure with me, +and in anticipation I had tied some nymphs of appropriate colour of +body, and hackled with a single turn of the tiniest blue hackle of the +merlin. It enabled me to get two or three excellent trout which were +taking blue-winged olive nymphs greedily under the opposite bank, and +which, or rather the first of which, like their predecessors, had +refused to respond to a floating imitation. The body was a mixture of +medium olive seal’s fur and bear’s hair close to the skin, tied with +primrose silk, the whisk being short and soft, from the spade-shaped +feather found on the shoulder of a blue dun cock. + +Another pattern, successful in the last two months of the season, is +dressed with a very short palish-blue dun or honey dun hen’s hackle, a +body of hare’s poll tied on pale primrose silk, with or without a small +gold tag and palest ginger whisks. But it is evident that on this +subject I am only at the beginning of inquiry. Of course there is +nothing very new in the idea of imitating nymphs. The half stone is just +a nymph generally ruined by over-hackling. + +In July, 1908, I caught an Itchen fish one afternoon, and on examining +his mouth I found a dark olive nymph. My fly-dressing materials were +with me, and I found I had a seal’s fur which, with a small admixture of +bear’s hair, dark brown and woolly, from close to the skin, enabled me +to reproduce exactly the colours of the natural insect. I dressed the +imitation with short, soft, dark blue whisks, body of the mixed dubbing +tied with well-waxed bright yellow silk, and bunched at the shoulder to +suggest wing-cases, the lower part of the body being ribbed with fine +gold wire. Two turns of a very short, dark rusty dun hackle completed +the imitation, much to my satisfaction. + +Apparently it was no less agreeable to the trout, for, beginning to fish +next morning at ten o’clock, I found six fish rising on a shallow. I +began with a small Red Sedge, as no dun was yet on the water, and missed +several of them. Then, putting up Pope’s Green Nondescript, I again +missed three fish in succession. I then bethought myself of my nymph, +and, knotting it on, in a few minutes I had five of the six fish, and +had lost the other. I then found a trout feeding in a run, evidently +under water. I made a miscast at him, and he came a yard across to take +the nymph, but did not take a good hold, for I lost him, only to secure +a better fish a few moments later. It then came on to blow and pelt with +rain in such sort as to render it no sort of pleasure to continue +fishing, and I knocked off at eleven o’clock, with three brace as the +result of an hour’s fishing. + +I have made me a shallow spoon-shaped net of butterfly-net material to +attach to the ring of my landing-net. It has the advantage of taking +anything which comes down the stream, whether on or under the surface, +and its practical use demonstrates itself in more ways than one. For +instance, in September, 1909, I went down to the river about 9.30, and, +having put my rod together, sank my net in the water, and watched for +what came down. There were a number of tiny diptera, but no trace of dun +or nymph. I therefore concluded that it would be some time before the +trout would be lined up under the banks, and that I could safely go away +for an hour, and try certain carriers where the feeding of fish is not +dependent on the rise. I did this, and put in over an hour’s exciting, +if not very remunerative, sport before returning to the main river. The +rise came on about 11.30. But for my net I might have wasted all the +time on the bank, instead of conducting a siege of three very handsome +trout, and bringing up two of them. + +On occasion I have found a Dotterel dun tied with yellow tying silk on a +No. 00 hook, and hackled with the tiniest dotterel hackle, after the +manner of Stewart (_i.e._, not hackled all at the head, but palmer-wise +for halfway down the short body), quite remunerative fished wet. This, I +imagine, is taken for a dun emerging. + +But it is not only duns whose nymphal stages may be imitated. I borrowed +a tube containing some nearly full-grown larvæ of the alder, and though +I am given to understand that in this stage the alder passes the greater +part of its existence in the black mud formed by decaying vegetation, I +made a sort of imitation of them which rather pleased me, and I tried it +in Germany in mid-May. Whether the trout are or are not familiar with +the natural insect in this stage I cannot say, but they took the +imitation with such avidity that I speedily wore out my three specimens. +They were only made as an experiment, and I tried no more, as I felt +qualms in my mind as to whether it was quite the game to imitate this +insect in this stage, any more than it would be to fish an imitation of +the caddis. I am therefore not giving my recipe. Nor do I give that for +making a caddis or gentle which I once tried, with mad success for a few +minutes, and gave up, conscience-stricken. I have since seen alder larvæ +in a glass tank in the Insect House at the Zoological Gardens, and, +though their conditions are there no doubt quite artificial, they were +swimming so freely and seemed so much at home in the water that I think +it more than probable that they venture into the open often enough to be +familiar to the trout. The long pale trailing processes along their +sides suggested to me whether there was not to be found in the alder +larvæ the prototype of the bumble. + +I was at one time greatly interested in an attempt to imitate the +fresh-water shrimp, and I tied a variety of patterns, including several +with backs of quill of some small bird dyed greenish-olive, and ribbed +firmly while wet and impressionable with silk or gold wire; but somehow +I never used or attempted to use any one of them. I, however, gave one +to an acquaintance, and he tied it on, and, standing on a footbridge, +cast it downstream over some trout which were reputed uncatchably shy. +At the first cast a big fish rushed at the shrimp, slashed it, and went +off leaving the one-time owner lamenting. + + + + + CHAPTER V + SPECIAL CONDITIONS AND WET-FLY SOLUTIONS + + + NERVES. + +Years ago, long ere the spirit of revolt was in me, when I followed as +closely as I knew how the maxims of the apostles of the dry fly, and +knew no other method for chalk streams, I suffered many blank days and +much depression from a state of weather and light which must be familiar +to all chalk-stream anglers—the more particularly because the “d——d +good-natured” and sympathetic friend who knows nothing of the subject +picks it out to say knowingly: “What a beautiful day for fishing!” It is +clouded, dull, leaden, overhung, and the reflected light on the water is +a dead milk-and-watery white; while, looking down into its depths, one +sees everything with a deadly and crystalline clearness. There is no +hint of thunder about, but on such days the trout are all nerves. Never +are they so difficult to approach, never are they so ready to dart off +with that torpedo wave. And if one finds a rising fish, and puts a dry +fly over him, even if he bolts not, he rises no more. + +But at length there came a day when my first timid experiments in the +fishing of chalk streams with the wet fly had proved encouraging enough +to lead to my having a small stock of wet-fly patterns for chalk-stream +fishing. It was a bad sample of those days when the nerves of trout +seemed all on the jump, and I had fished from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. without +so much as a rise. It was not that the fish were not rising. On the +contrary, they rose very well—not very much, perhaps, but the best days +are often those when the rise is moderate. But this day every fish I +cast to went down at once, and too often I saw that detestable torpedo +wave, sometimes at the approach, and more frequently at the first cast. + +Soon after three I tied on a Tup’s Indispensable dressed on gut, and +crawled carefully to within a long cast of a trout which rose at +infrequent intervals in a narrow side-stream under the opposite side. My +line trailed on the water as I approached, and I made the minimum of +effort to dry the fly ere I delivered it, so as to attract as little +attention as possible to my movements. So it came about that the fly, +when it lit a yard or more to the left of and above the trout—it was a +bad cast as regards direction—went immediately under. For the _n_th time +that day I saw that torpedo wave as the fish darted through the shallow +water. I rose with a sigh, but as I did so my rod was a hoop, and the +reel screeched; for the trout’s dart had been _at_ the fly, not from it, +and it had gone a full yard or more to fetch it. He was just short of +one and three-quarter pounds. Before four o’clock I had another brace by +the same method. They were not easy, and I did not get every fish I +tried, or even many; but I got some where with the dry fly I should +assuredly have gone on getting none, and the trout stood to be cast to +in a way they would not that day to the dry fly. + +It is true enough that there are days and times when the dry fly will +beat the wet fly hollow, but there are days when the converse is the +case, and from subsequent experience I can recommend the trial of the +wet fly on those dull, nervy days of milk-and-watery glare. + + + OF THE TROUT OF GLASSY GLIDES. + +There are places on most rivers where the water comes swiftly and in +solid volume down a slope too slight in the incline to create a fall, +too short to create a rapid or stickle, and too smooth to cause a broken +surface, yet with a rapid run below. The result is a glassy glide, +gin-clear, with an air of unusual smoothness, and such a pace that there +is an immediate drag upon any floating fly which is laid upon the +current. Often some of the handsomest and best fighting trout in the +river are to be found in such places, where their blood is constantly +refreshed by the highly oxygenated water, their health and energy kept +up to the mark by the need of contending against its swiftness, and the +inducement to so contend is present in the plentiful supply of food +brought down by the current. + +Such a glide do I know well, with some excellent fish always showing +there, but never breaking the surface; and for years I found them +impregnable, for the simple reason that, if one pitched a fly over their +noses, it was past them before they could rise to it, and if one pitched +it up enough to give the fish a chance to take it they wouldn’t, because +there was a prompt and streaky drag if the line were, as it could hardly +help being, the least little bit across stream. Even the natural fly +would sail over them unmolested. + +But one day some years back, on a calm afternoon in July, with not a +trout rising, I was on the Itchen, and I had crawled up some half-mile +of sedgy bank in search of a feeding fish without finding one. But on +the far side, in front of a certain post, the remnant of a one-time +fence, I knew from experience that there was usually a fish—at any rate +at feeding-time. There was nothing to suggest any particular dry fly, +and on the previous afternoon—a Sunday—I had spent a pleasant twenty +minutes watching a fish in front of the stump taking something under +water with a sort of porpoise roll. It therefore occurred to me to put +up one of those little Greenwell’s Glories, dressed by Forrest of Kelso +on pairs of No. 00 hooks to gut, with which the name of Mr. Ewen M. Tod +is associated. I had bought them in the previous spring to experiment +upon bulging trout. These flies are known as “doubles,” and are not +ready floaters. One puts a thumb-nail between the barb, and forces them +apart till the two hooks form an angle of 45 degrees with each other. +The fly dropped a yard above the post and sank. When it should have been +nearing the post, a faint swirl rising to the surface seemed a +sufficient indication of a movement below to justify a raising of the +rod-point, and the fish was fast. In this manner it came about that a +small Greenwell’s Glory on double hooks terminated the cast when the +glassy glide above adverted to was reached. A trout lay out in it in +position to feed, but though he moved a little from side to side, and +may have been intercepting food, he made no rise. Keeping well out of +sight, I dropped the Glory on the far side of and in front of the fish, +and it at once went under. Again came the small disturbance welling +quickly to the surface; up went my hand, and again a good trout was +fast. + +That afternoon I killed two and a half brace of good fish with the wet +fly fished into likely places without seeing a single rise. The other +three fish—but that is another story. + +Since that day I have killed many a good fish in that hitherto +impossible spot, and one morning in July, 1908, I had two and a half +brace in less than an hour with a wet double Tup’s Indispensable out of +it. + + + OF THE WET FLY IN POOLS, BAYS, AND EDDIES. + +There is probably no problem which has filled the souls of so many +dry-fly anglers with the despair attending defeat as that presented by a +day when a cross-stream wind, whether up and across, down and across, or +straight across, drives every dun under the opposite bank, and into +little pools and eddies between the prominences on that bank, and so out +of the line of the current which would otherwise carry them along. Then +every big trout in the river seems to shift out of the current and into +the sheltered bay or eddy, and there he sets to work collecting with +busy neb the little argosies which have lost their tide, and are +drifting helpless on slack water. It seems so easy to drop the fly in +the right place. So it is, but if, as is many times more than probable, +your cruiser is away a foot or two, or is deliberate in his movements, +and does not take the fly at once, your drag has made itself painfully +evident, and your fish is down for half an hour. No, on those occasions +the only chance with the dry fly is to hit your fish with it on the tip +of the nose at a moment when few naturals are about. Then he may snap +it—but what a number of chances against its so falling! + +No, here is a case in which the wet fly is clearly predicated, and it +should be so dressed as to go under without the least hesitation. The +advantage which the wet fly has is not that the trout is taking the +nymph in preference to the floating dun, though he is probably doing +that far more than is apparent, but that, whereas a drag on the surface +is fatal and betrays the gut, an under-water drag is not betraying, and +the movement of the fly caused by the drag may, in its beginning at any +rate, be even attractive to the trout, as imparting motion suggesting +life and volition to an otherwise suspicious object. The drag also +serves to tighten instead of slackening the line, so that a very small +strike fixes the hook. + +When the trout takes a wet fly in such a position, the surface +indications are by no means obvious; but if the angler be on the alert +to strike when such indications come, it is wonderful how soon he can +pick up the knack, and what excellent fish this method brings him. A +strike which does not touch the fish, being in the nature of an +under-water drawing of the fly, will often have no scaring effect upon a +feeding fish, where a strike with a floating fly would send him headlong +to cover. + +It is difficult to pick among my recollections one instance more +illustrative than another of the value of this method, but I will take +an afternoon in July, 1908. It was a cold day for the time of year, with +a keen north-westerly wind across and a little down. A few little pale +duns were going down, being beaten by the wind into and among the bays +along the opposite bank, where they dodged in and out among the flags. +Three trout, and three only, could I find moving, and they were taking +every dun which went over them. I tried Little Marryat, Medium Olive, +Flight’s Fancy, Ginger Quill, and Red Quill, in vain. In fact I put all +three down. But they meant feeding, and were soon going again. It was +the last day of a seven-day visit. I had so far forty-six trout, and I +wanted to round off the fifty. I put up as an experiment a tiny dotterel +hackle, tied with primrose tying silk in the true Stewart style, not +with the fibres radiating from the head, but palmer-wise for halfway +down the body. The trout had it at the very first offer, and was duly +landed. I went on to the next, and got him almost immediately. The +third, for some reason, had no use for Dotterel duns, but the moment I +covered him with a Tup’s Indispensable he slashed it, and joined the +other two in my creel. I looked in vain for a fourth, and there was no +evening rise, so I had to leave off with but forty-nine of my fifty. But +for the wet fly, I am convinced I should have had to content myself with +the single brace which the morning rise had brought me, and that would +have been a disappointing ending to a good seven days. + + + OF THE JUDICIOUS USE OF THE MOON. + +Though blinder than the proverbial bat in any slanting light, and +therefore not as fortunate as I should like to be in fishing the evening +rise, and though academically of opinion that fishing should cease when +the dusk no longer lets the angler discern his fly, I confess to being +at least as unwilling as any better endowed with sight to leave the +water-side while the trout are still busy sucking down the spinners; but +there are occasions when, if the moon be up enough to cast black shadows +under the banks, and I can find the suitable spot with rising fish, I +envy no man his superior eyesight—mine is good enough. Let me illustrate +my meaning by describing the occasion on which I made my little +discovery. + +It was an evening in July. I had not begun fishing before four o’clock, +and the afternoon had only earned me a single trout, and he no great +shakes, either. The evening rise came on, and the trout began to feed +briskly; but my infirmity was against me, and I missed or misjudged +several rises, and it began to look as if I were going to make nothing +of my opportunity, when I came to a bend where the current swung in +pitch-black shadow under the opposite bank, while between the near edge +of the shadow and my bank the stream ran molten moonlight. Round the +bend in the dark I could hear the trout feeding away gaily, and the +rings of their rises surged into the silver of the lighted current. + +It seemed a mad thing to do, but I despatched my Tup’s Indispensable to +a spot in the dark as near as I could judge above the ring of a good +fish. My cast lay like a hair on the surface, stretching into the dark, +not too taut. Suddenly I saw my gut draw straight upon the current, the +farther end disappearing under the sheen of the moonlight, and, without +waiting to think, I raised my rod-point, to find myself in battle with a +solid fish. Thrice in the twenty minutes the rise lasted did I repeat +this experience. Each trout was soundly hooked, and a nice level lot +they were, running from one and a quarter to one and a half pounds. Thus +was success at the last moment pulled by a fluke out of almost certain +defeat. It is not always possible to find place and light serving in +this way, but if you do, make use of the moon. + + + THE WET-FLY OIL TIP. + +In my observations upon the judicious use of the moon, I indicated the +advantage to be derived, in cases where the light prevented the rise +from being otherwise detected in due time, from watching the gut cast as +a float signalling the taking of the fly. Indeed, it is not only by +night that the cast may be watched with advantage, but often by day when +casting a fly, wet or dry, but especially wet, into a bad light, while +the cast or part of it may be seen floating on a glassy piece of water. +It is now some years since, in the columns of the _Fishing Gazette_, I +called attention to what I described as the “wet-fly oil tip” in this +connection. I take no credit for this invention. It belongs entirely to +Mr. C. A. M. Skues, the secretary of the Fly-fishers’ Club, and its +discovery came about in this way: + +We were fishing opposite banks of a German trout stream, the Erlaubnitz, +and the day rise of fly was over. The trout, which had been hovering +over their pockets in the weeds and in the runs between them, had +dropped out of sight, and it was obvious that it would need something to +attract them more noticeable than the pale watery duns which were the +staple of the season. We agreed upon Soldier Palmers tied with bright +scarlet seal’s fur. Presently the far bank began catching them, though +he was fishing upstream wet in rather fast water. I hailed him, and he +said he had paraffined his gut cast to within the last two links from +the fly and watched his cast. I was not above a hint, and in a minute or +two I was experiencing the benefit of the wet-fly oil tip, and we were +kept busy till six o’clock brought on the usual rise of Little Pale Blue +of Autumn, and a change to floating patterns. It also involved a change +of cast, for a cross-stream cast with oiled gut betrays you with a vile +drag. It is a disadvantage of paraffining your gut that it limits you to +one cast—viz., that directly upstream. But there are times when it is +well to accept the limitation. + + + OF GENERALSHIP AND THE WET FLY. + +There is a bend on Itchen where the water runs deep and black. Over the +best of it hang three large trees, under which, if trout be rising +anywhere on the river, they will be found pegging away, and often when +they are moving nowhere else. The place is near the spot where anglers +foregather for lunch and a pull at pipe or flask; so the fish under +these trees are hammered more than a little, and their knowledge is in +direct proportion to their experience. Here, too, anglers usually take +apart their split canes in the evening, and, ere they do so, have one +last chuck in the dusk with Sedge, Coachman, or large Red Quill at one +or all of these rising trout, but it is the rarest thing for one to be +caught. I have caught six of them in fifteen years. Perhaps it is +because to cover them one must fish straight across from the opposite +bank—no other attack is possible—and they can hardly fail to see rod and +angler. + +But it fell about in the year of grace 1909 that my lawful occasions +took me along the right bank, on which the trees grew, past the haunt of +these aggravating risers, and I took the occasion to observe. None of +them were moving at the time, and the water was lower by some inches +than the normal. I looked in the place where the best of the risers was +usually present when attending to business, but he was not there. Four +or five yards farther upstream the bottom, from being shallow, dipped +suddenly to the deep, with a sharp brown earthy edge, and there, lying +in shelter from the current under the earthy ledge at the head of the +hole, lay a trout which I put down at a comforting two pounds. He saw +me, and slithered into his fastness, but I did not forget the hint. Many +times had I cast to that trout when rising, but always under a tree some +yards below. Now I would cast to him when not rising, and I would fish +him in his hide. The lowest of a small cohort of ribbon-weeds craning +their tips gently over the surface indicated the neighbourhood of the +lip of the hole, and, scanning the opposite side carefully, I marked the +exact bunch of yellow flower from behind which I ought to deliver my +cast, and marked on the hither bank a bunch of purple hemlock which +indicated the centre of the hole. + +Later in the day from the opposite bank I sent over a wet Tup’s +Indispensable to the weed’s edge several times without avail. + +The next time I came down the fish was rising to surface food, and I +left him severely alone. My time was to be when he was not rising, for +no trout seems able to resist a nymph at any time, even if not feeding, +and a nymph of sorts he should have. Coming back later, I found +stillness reigning; so, mounting a Tup’s Indispensable, I soaked it +well, and flicked it over to the edge of the weeds. It lit, and went +under, leaving the gut for the most part along the surface. The gut +drifted down, the fly end slowly slipping under the upper film. The fly +was withdrawn and the cast repeated. Once more the gut lay along the +surface; once more it slipped slowly through to a point; then it seemed +to move under with a certain decision. I raised my rod-point with a +drawing action, and the trout which had defied ten thousand dry flies +was on. He wasn’t quite two pounds, but it doesn’t matter. It was +generalship which got him, which discerned that in his holt he was +possibly accessible to the seductions of the casual nymph-suggesting wet +fly in a way in which he was not accessible to the temptations of the +too well known dry fly in the place of vantage where he daily fed. + + + A POTTED TROUT, AND ONE OTHER. + +When the drowners are out in the water-meadows flushing the ditches till +they flood the tables and drench the grasses with water seeking its way +back through the herbage to the river by way of ditch, drain, and +carrier, the wise old trout who know their business may be found in +narrow ditches and channels down to foot-wide runnels in search of the +earthworm and the miscellaneous pickings of the grasslands. Again, when +July comes round, and the season of minnowing is indicated, the big +trout once more make their way, in search of minnows, into the narrower +irrigation channels of the water-meadows. So ardent are they at times in +pursuit of their quarry that on occasion it is possible to net them out +without their becoming aware of their danger. + +On one occasion I got three good trout thus from behind at one scoop of +the landing-net, and turned them back into the main. + +Often, if they get into a channel with a constant flow and a steady +food-supply, trout will not care to drop back to the river, and will +take up a position of strength, where, inaccessible to the fly of the +angler, they daily increase in size and lustihood. Such potted fish are +almost entirely subaqueous feeders, a floating dun rarely crossing their +field of vision. They grow dark and copper-coloured, and very unlike the +fish of the river from which they hail. + +One such fish do I remember, who took up his holt in the eddy just above +a hatch-hole, through which ran the whole of a brisk stream some two to +two and a half feet wide, turning at right angles to do so, after +impinging on his eddy as on a sort of water-buffer. It was not hard to +approach the place without being seen, but the moment one looked over +the edge his troutship would flash down through the hatch-hole and into +the racing stream beneath. Several times I mounted a Sedge, tied on a +No. 2 hook attached to a strong cast, and dibbed cautiously over the +edge. Once I caught a companion trout of one pound five ounces, but on +all other occasions the attempt was fruitless. + +Tired at length of these failures, and not pleased that such a trout as +our friend of the hatch-hole eddy should give no sport to the fly, one +afternoon I approached the hatch-hole from below, slid down my wide and +large landing-net into the thrust of the stream, and looked suddenly +over into the eddy. There was a brown flash to the hole, and next moment +the trout was kicking in the net—black hogback with red copper sides and +gleaming white belly, two and a half pounds, and as fat as a pig. +Swiftly I conveyed him the needful fifty yards or so to a side-stream +some ten or twelve yards wide, and turned him carefully loose. He made +no pretence of being scared, but moved leisurely away across and up +stream. I watched him cross a patch of weeds and enter a gravelled +clearing, where a tidy trout lay, butt him out of it, and establish +himself in his place. In a few moments he moved up into the next place, +butted out the brace of trout which occupied it, and took the position +of vantage. He did not remain long, but moved to the next pool, again +ejecting the occupants. + +Still dissatisfied, he moved higher up to where the stream was narrowed +by camp-sheathing to support a low wooden bridge over which carts pass +to carry the meadow hay. Here he ejected the three or four occupants, +and established himself finally, with his neb close up under the sill of +the bridge—too close for a fly to be got in ahead of him—obviously with +the key of the larder in his pocket; and here daily for the next five +days of my stay I saw him firmly planted, but, though I plied him with +Sedge, and Quill, and Tup’s Indispensable, wet fly and dry fly, I never +got an offer or an indication of a desire to offer from him, nor did I +ever see him break the surface, and I left him _in situ_ at the end of +my visit. + +During these five days, however, crossing from the smaller stream to the +main, I saw a trout in a foot-wide runnel hovering with that quivering +of the fins that indicates a willingness to feed. He was not a big +fish—about one pound—but I thought it would be sport to try and cast to +him and catch him in so narrow a channel, and I knelt down to deliver +the fly. He saw me, however, and moved up. It was on my way ’cross +meadow to the main, so I followed him till I came to the place where the +runnel’s water-supply issued from a pipe which entered its head, at +right angles to its course, from the centre of one of the tables. The +flow from the pipe had worried out a corner hole, which was wide and +deep enough to admit my whole landing-net and a bit over, and I dipped +it in. I saw the amber gleam of my trout as he slashed by me and fled +back down the runnel he had ascended, but wriggling in the net which I +lifted was a bouncing fish, black, hogbacked, with copper sides and +white belly, in first-rate fettle, and weighing better, at a guess, than +one and a half pounds, evidently an old inhabitant of that corner. The +main was but a few yards off, and I carefully turned in my captive. + +Two days later I was fishing up the bank of the main in blazing +sunshine, searching for a rising fish, but finding none, when my +attention was attracted by a movement in the water close under my bank +some ten or fifteen yards above the spot where I turned the trout in. I +dropped my wet Greenwell’s Glory a foot or so from the spot, and, +answering the draw of the floating gut signalling some under-water +adhesion, I tightened on a nice fish, and after the usual preliminary +exhibition of coyness, emphasized by sundry jumpings, I persuaded him to +come ashore. The spring-balance said one pound ten ounces. Colour, size, +and shape, were identical with the trout I had turned back two days +before, and though, of course, I cannot prove it, I have no doubt he was +the same. + +Now, why did one of these potted trout take the fly, and the other +refuse? This is my theory: Both had got the exclusive habit of +subaqueous feeding, but the big one had his nose in a position where it +was impossible to get a wet fly to him so as to pitch above him, or even +alongside of his head, and the water was too fast for it to be worth the +while of a fish of his calibre to turn and follow a mere nymph. The +smaller fish was in a position to be covered, and the moment the nymph +came to him under water he had it as a matter of course. Possibly, in +the same position the larger trout might have done the same. + + + OF TWO SATURDAY AFTERNOONS. + +They were consecutive. Both were in August, 1909, and the reason why +they are recorded is not because of any remarkable success, but because +they illustrate varying conditions on the same river, proving amenable +to varying treatment. + +The first found me by the water-side soon after two o’clock. The morning +rise was completely over. Not even a grayling was rising. The water was +deadly still. A full stream was running, because the hay-makers were in +the meadows, and no water that could be kept out was being let into +ditches and carriers; so it was no good exploring them for stray risers, +as at other times I might have done. For some time I explored likely +places under the sedges with floating flies—No. 1 Red Sedge with +hare’s-ear body, Red Ant, and Tup’s Indispensable—but without eliciting +the faintest response. Then about five o’clock I put up a wet +Greenwell’s Glory, and cast it upstream, wet, into every little likely +pool between the bank and the weed-bed which grew intermittently a yard +or two out from the bank. The change was immediate. By six o’clock I had +three and a half brace of average fish (biggest one pound ten ounces), +all on the same fly. Fish would surge a yard or more to meet it, would +even turn downstream and take it, though the floating fly had not moved +a single one to offer. There was no evening rise. + +The following Saturday I was down at the same time. There was the same +faint westerly breeze, and much the same light. A few—very few—grayling +were taking black gnats for a short time after my arrival, but they soon +stopped entirely, and I had only one in my basket. Not a rise dimpled +the surface. I continued, however, casting a Black Gnat under my own +bank—the right—for some forty or fifty yards, without an offer. I had +the mortification of seeing three handsome trout move out from position, +and I was just about to change to a Hare’s Ear Sedge when I saw a +grass-moth flutter out of the sedges and across the water. As luck would +have it, I had four floating Grannom in my cap, and it didn’t take long +to knot one on. + +In a few minutes I was into a trout, which took as the fly lit. I landed +him, and then another, and yet a further brace, every one of which took +the Grannom without the least hesitation. Then I found myself trenching +on the beat of another angler, and I bethought me that the three fish I +had disturbed might be back in position; so I turned down, and, getting +below them, cast carefully to where they ought to be. I whipped one fly +off; then with the new fly I rose the first of them—quite a nice +fish—hooked him, and lost him after a short tussle. Examining the hook, +I found it pulled out nearly straight owing to a soft wire. Whether that +rattled me or not I don’t know, but I left my two remaining Grannom in +the other two fish successively. Having no more, I fell back on the +Sedge in vain. Equally vain were Red Ant (dry) and Greenwell’s Glory and +Tup’s Indispensable (wet), and, as there was no evening rise, I finished +up with a basket of two and a half brace, which with better handling +should have been four brace. + +On each of these afternoons there was no rise of fish or fly; and on one +nothing but a floating pattern did any good, on the other nothing but a +sunk pattern. + +The inference that I might have gone back blank on the first occasion +but for the supplemental aid of the wet-fly method does not seem +far-fetched. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + UNCLASSIFIED + + + OF HOVERING AND SOARING, AND OF CRUISING TROUT. + +The trout that is glued to the bottom is generally a pretty hopeless +fish. He is either not willing to feed, or, being willing, his +suspicions have been aroused and he has gone down. Pretty stories are +told of how such fish are occasionally startled into taking by the fly +being slammed down with violence on or just behind their heads, but no +such instance has come within my experience. + +But the trout which is hovering in mid-water or near the surface is +always a hopeful subject. Anglers will tell you he is willing to feed. +In my belief, he is more than that; he is generally actively +feeding—under water. + +I remember a trout which lay in the same hole with six grayling. He was +hovering not far below the surface, but would have nothing to say to a +series of dry flies of appropriate pattern offered him; but a wet +Greenwell’s Glory was too much for him, and he turned and took it first +cast. He was undoubtedly feeding on nymphs, but not over weed, and so +not bulging; yet he presented only the appearance of hovering, or, as +Walton generally calls it, “soaring.” + +Another likely fish is the cruiser on his way to his feeding-station. If +I see a wedge-shaped ripple advancing irregularly upstream, and broken +at times by a dimple in the centre, I always feel hopeful, and I know +that such trout are nearly always of unusual size for the water. It is, +of course, difficult to place the fly exactly; but if that difficulty is +overcome, your trout will take it most unsuspiciously. The best course +is to throw to one side and a little ahead of the last rise. + +A more difficult proposition is the cruiser who has a small defined +beat. You find him moving up the bank in such wise that every cast is +short of his rise; but suddenly, if you are not ware, you will find that +he has turned and sailed downstream to the bottom of his beat, and that +your rod and line are absolutely over him. Such a trout seems always +fastidious and picksome, but it is all the more gratifying to circumvent +him. He is usually taking toll of insects collected in eddies, and a +spinner of sorts is more likely to take him than a dun; but he will +often rush for a fly that is being withdrawn under water. + + + OF THE PORPOISE ROLL. + +There is one peculiarly irritating kind of rise in which trout indulge. +Just like porpoises, they come up, and, scarcely breaking the surface +with the head, expose first the back fin and then the tail as they go +down. Often of an afternoon or evening it seems as if every trout in the +river were busy at this game. The difficulty is to know, on such +occasions, what they are taking. “Detached Badger” (p. 119 of “Dry-Fly +Fishing”) suggests larvæ, but though at times I have caught fish thus +rising with sunk flies, I am inclined to doubt their taking nymphs or +larvæ, and to suspect spinners. This (even if the trout be taking +nymphs) is not properly described as “bulging,” that term being confined +to the swashing rises when a fish rushes to and fro, making visible +waves, ending in a boil as it turns in the act of fielding the +subaqueous insect. Fortunately, this porpoise type of rise is rare, for +when trout indulge in it sport is consistently bad. I have been +promising myself for the last two or three seasons that, when I drop on +such a rise, I will try Mr. F. M. Halford’s spent spinner patterns, but +in an average number of days’ fishing I have failed to drop on an +occasion when the trout have been thus rising. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + SUNDRY CONSIDERATIONS + + + OF THE RELATION OF PATTERN TO THE POSITION OF TROUT, AND HEREIN OF THE + TAKING OFF OF WARY WILLY. + +It is perhaps a small matter which is treated under this head, but +anything which helps the angler to a correct selection of fly is so much +to the good, and the point I want to make here is that the haunt of a +fish is an item to be taken note of in deciding what items to put upon +the menu to be offered for his selection. For instance, if your trout be +in position in the middle of a fairly wide stream, and that be his +habitual post, it is practically little good giving him an imitation of +any insect which haunts the bank only, such as alder in its season, +sedge, grass-moth, or willow-fly, which, on the other hand, may be tried +in their season, with every prospect of success, upon fish under the +banks. + +Well do I remember how marked this rule was in its application on a day +in September, 1903, on a German limestone river. In the middle the +willow-fly, which was out in quantity that day, was no good. The trout +wanted duns, and willow-flies were no use to them, or probably there, +away from the banks, were practically unknown; but under the alder and +willow-fringed banks on either side the trout took the spent willow-fly +freely, and, of thirty-seven trout, no less than thirty-four fell that +day to the willow-fly under the banks, but not one from mid-river. Many +a time the trout will take a sedge or an imitation of the grass-moth +under the banks when quite shy of them in midstream. In connection with +this I may record an incident which is framed in my mind as the strange +disappearance of Wary Willy. + +Wary Willy was almost a public character. He inhabited a club water not +far from Winchester, and was always at his post when duty called. But he +was of an obliging turn of mind, and always ready to show sport to the +new-comer who might be tempted to put a fly over him. Yet it was not for +nothing that he had earned his name, for, though many had risen him, +none was recorded as having hooked him. His holt was under a grassy bank +(right of the river), about three yards above the spot where a willow +stump extended a solitary branch at right angles to the current, a foot +above and about two yards out into the stream, so that any angler who +paid his respects to William had to send his invitation across the +willow-bough, a state of things which led to difficulties and language +for the angler, and to an amused retreat on the part of Willy. Yet a +short time later he would be back at his post, adding to his collection +of the Ephemeridæ with undiminished zest. + +I was not a member of the club, but I paid a visit to a friend who had a +rod, and he very good-naturedly insisted on my trying his nine-foot +Leonard over Wary Willy, and he brought me to the place. I had no tackle +with me, so I had to use my friend’s floating flies. The wind was light +and in the right direction, and I got my fly over the branch nicely and +covered him several times, and as I let my reel-line drop on the water +below the branch the current carried my fly back successfully a number +of times; but at length I was hung up, and when I tried to release +myself Willy had business elsewhere. + +On this water the club members and the keepers said that sedges were no +use. It was a dun and spinner water only. So when in the afternoon I met +the head-keeper, and saw a small Red Sedge in his cap, I made no bones +of asking for it, as it was of no use. Borrowing the Leonard once more, +I tied on the Red Sedge, and stole up cautiously to Willy’s abode. But +just ere I got to position a fish rose to the right of his place, about +three yards out from the bank. I did not wish him to scare Willy, so, to +get him out of the way first, I dropped the sedge upon his nose, and he +had it immediately. He was very indignant at the imposition that had +been put upon him, and turned several somersaults in the air, and +altogether put up quite a good fight for a fish of his ounces, which +numbered twenty-five, before my friend’s landing-net received him. I +had, however, steered him carefully, so that his antics should not +disturb William, and I approached that worthy’s holt with a modest +confidence that William stood in the way of getting a surprise. But +William was not there. William never came back. He couldn’t. He was +dead, and in my friend’s landing-net. But it was several days before +remorse began to work in me, for it was not till a week or so later that +my friend told me of the disappearance of Wary Willy. But Willy had +always been fished with duns. He knew all the patterns of Holland and +Chalkley and Ogden Smith, but never had he had cause to suspect the +genuineness of a sedge—and so, good-bye Willy! + + + OF THE USE OF SPINNERS DURING THE RISE OF DUNS, AND HEREIN OF THE + VAGARIES OF THE BLUE-WINGED OLIVE. + +“The Red Quill,” says Mr. F. M. Halford, “is one of the sheet-anchors of +the dry-fly fisherman on a strange river when in doubt.” Never was a +truer word spoken. Mr. Englefield of Winchester, I believe, conducted +the experiment of confining himself to the Red Quill (in a variety of +sizes and shades, and with and without the addition of gold and silver +tags) for a whole season, and did as well with the one fly as in other +seasons with a larger selection. And it is a remarkable fact that the +Red Quill, bearing more resemblance to a Red Spinner than to a dun, will +frequently kill during a rise of duns as well as, or better than, quite +a good imitation of the dun itself. It will also be found that during +the rise of any kind of dun its spinner will often take as well as, if +not better than, the subimago pattern. For instance, a Red Spinner +during a rise of olives, a Claret Spinner when the iron blue dun is on, +and a Sherry Spinner when the blue-winged olive is on. + +All the spinners do not die and fall spent on the water over night. Some +come on to the water in the cool of the early morning, and if the angler +tries in the hot weather for an early morning trout, the spinner may be +commended to him as giving him his best chance, so far as floating +patterns are concerned. And when, before the rise comes on, an odd fish +or so may be found in position putting up occasionally at something, +spinners may legitimately be suspected. Therefore it may be that, when +the rise comes on, the memory of a recent acquaintance with more +delicious morsels than the current duns leads to a readiness on his part +to absorb the floating imitation spinner. + +The blue-winged olive is a large and handsome fly, and its hatch is +usually an evening matter, though I have seen it at all hours of the +day. But when it is on, and there are other duns at the same time, it is +always possible to distinguish the trout which are taking the +blue-winged olive by the curious shape of the boil they make in taking +it; a kidney-shaped boil, with two distinct whorls right and left. And +if the angler is provided with Orange Quills on No. 1 hooks, and will +pick out these fish, he may count on sport worth remembering, though +possibly not a spinner may be on the water at the time. Curiously +enough, such a thing as a good imitation of the blue-winged olive in the +subimago form has yet to be invented. Patterns are tied which will kill +an occasional trout, but the Orange Quill, if the rise be anything like +a good one, means three or four brace, and probably all big fish. + +One evening, June 24 in 1908, I ran down to Winchester by the 6.50 train +to see Eton v. Winchester on the next day, and I got down there about +eight o’clock. I had not meant to fish overnight, but I thought there +was time for a cast before the dusk drew in, and I picked up a nine-foot +Leonard and a landing-net, stuck a damper with a cast in my pocket, and +a small box of flies, and got down to a broad shallow. I found several +fish rising, and at once diagnosed the blue-winged olive. So I tied on a +large Orange Quill and cast to the nearest. Up he came, and was off with +a flounder. Without losing a moment, I covered the next with the ensuing +cast. The same thing occurred, and I promptly dropped my next cast a +yard to the right over the third fish. He, too, came up and fastened. He +went straight to weed, but, holding him quite lightly, I soon had the +satisfaction of feeling him beat himself free of the weeds, and +presently I netted him out. The fly was quite soaked, and I tried to +change it, but it was too dark, and so I knocked off, having risen three +trout to the Orange Quill in three successive casts. + +Some years ago I dressed for my friend, M. Louis Bouglé, of Paris and +the Fly-fishers’ Club, a winged imitation of the blue-winged olive, +which is at certain seasons almost the only dun on the chalk streams of +Normandy, and he can kill an occasional fish on it. Its dressing is +immaterial, for I never could do any good with it myself; but one +evening I was fishing the Varennes with M. Bouglé, when there came on a +good fall of blue-winged olive spinner. My friend caught a trout with +his pattern, and by the aid of a spoon I got from its stomach, and +turned into a glass, three large greenish-amber spinners, with the +distinctive three setæ; and next morning in a capital light I tied an +imitation of these insects, spent-gnat-wise, with seal’s fur body of +palish yellow-green olive of appropriate mixture of furs. Next evening +we each got fish with these imitations, M. Bouglé more than I, and I +have always been promising myself that I will put it up one blue-winged +olive evening on the Hampshire rivers; but when the occasion has come, +and that distinctive rise is seen, I have never been able to resist +taking the Orange Quill rather than the spent olive pattern out of the +box where they repose together. It is hard to resist three or four +brace. + + + OF GENERAL FEEDERS, AND HEREIN OF THE UNDOING OF AUNT SALLY. + +There are places in most rivers—generally, I think, about the spots most +frequented by man—where trout establish themselves, which seem, though +willing enough to take duns as they come, to be independent of them as a +staple food, and to take gaily every day and all day long, and often far +into the night, whatever fly-food comes along, always excepting, _bien +entendu_, the angler’s flies, however delicately offered. Such trout are +readily put off their feed, but not for long, and the angler, returning +to the spot after a short absence, may make up his mind to find his +friend back in position, pegging away as freely as ever. Everyone has a +chuck at these fish—no one can resist them; but it is a rare thing for +one to be caught—and the Coachman may account for a few. A strong ruffle +in the water _may_ enable you to take one unaware, but, generally +speaking, the ordinary tactics, whether dry-fly or wet, are thrown away +on such fish, and the only chance is to fall back on something +exceptional either in lure or in method of attack, or both. + +Followeth the example of + + _The Undoing of Aunt Sally._ + +She was called Aunt Sally because everyone felt bound to have a shy at +her. Her coign of vantage was near the bottom of the water, where the +fishery begins, and her irritating “pip, pip,” as she took fly after fly +in the culvert that was her home was too much for the nerves of nine +anglers out of ten, so that the absurdest efforts to circumvent her were +made daily—efforts to float a dry upwinged dun down the culvert from the +top: result, immediate and irremediable drag; efforts to flick a fly +upstream to her in the culvert from below: result, broken rod-tops, +barbless hooks, flies flicked off against the brickwork, and other +disasters, leading to profanity. + +The _locus in quo_ was a stream in the South of England, flowing some +fifteen yards or so wide at a good even pace, with a nice purl on it, +down to and past a deep hole used for bathing by the farmers’ lads. From +this hole, a culvert in the left bank, a yard wide and, say, four yards +long, diverts a considerable body of the stream into a new channel, to +drive a mill in the town below. This was the fastness in which Aunt +Sally had taken up her abode, and throughout the spring and summer had +defied all efforts to dislodge her. + +It was my first visit to the stream that year, and from 9 a.m. till 3 +p.m. on an August day I had worked away for meagre results. There was no +rise of fly after ten o’clock, and a strong rise of water-rats. Three +trout had I turned over, and one of one pound two ounces reposed in my +bag. I had not seen a rising fish for hours, when, weary and +disappointed, I drifted down the right bank to the bottom of the +fishery, and sat down to rest on the steps which are set in the hole to +assist bathers in clambering out. + +“Pip!” I heard coming from somewhere. I looked upstream, I looked under +my own bank, but not a sign of a ring was to be seen. “Pip, pip!” again. +At last, leaning low and looking through the culvert, I saw, some two +yards down, what I took to be a dimple of a rising fish. Watching a few +moments, I saw it repeated, and my spirits revived. My point was fine, +so I took it off and knotted on a yard of sound Refina gut, and ended it +with a brown beetle with peacock’s herl body and red legs. I soaked him +well, so that there should be no drag on the surface, and then, getting +my length for the other side, let the fly and gut drag in the stream +till the moment I made my cast. Fly and gut together struck the brick +face of the culvert, and fell in a heap at the mouth. Instantly the +current caught the fly and gut, and extended it down the culvert. Almost +at the same moment the current of the main stream, across which my +reel-line lay, began to drag upon it, and completed the extension of the +gut by the time the beetle had run a short two yards down the culvert. +At once it began to drag back. This was too much for Aunt Sally—to have +that beetle scuttling from her when it was almost in her mouth. She came +at it, and in a flash secured it ere it could escape from the culvert; +and before she could turn she was skull-dragged out of her fastness and +turned down into the stream below. She made a determined fight for it, +but she was very soundly hooked, and I gave no needless law, so that her +fifteen inches were soon laid out upon the grass. Not knowing of her +fame, I was quite content with her one pound eleven ounces; but an +angler who told me of her reputation said she had always been put down +as a much bigger fish. An hour later I looked down the culvert again, +but the water had dropped some inches, and there was not enough current +through the culvert to make it fishable. I had hit the happy moment for +the undoing of Aunt Sally. + + + OF ATTENTION TO CASUAL FEEDERS. + +The happening fish is a godsend to the angler whom time or trains, +failure to find the taking fly, or other act of God or the King’s +enemies, have prevented from making his basket during the main hatch of +duns. By the “happening fish” is to be understood, not the chance riser +to a chance cast, but the trout which, by reason of a larger stomach +capacity, misfortune of position, shortage of fly, disinclination for +the society of tailers, or the pursuit of the succulent shrimp, or +neglect of his opportunities during the main rise, is left hungry, or at +least hungry enough not to have left off feeding after—often long +after—the main rise has faded out; and also the trout whose hearty +appetite ranges him under the bank in advance of the rise, in a state of +impatience for his meal, which leads him to sample such _hors d’œuvres_ +as the stream may bring his way. For reasons which shall be made +apparent, both of these classes of trout offer themselves an easier prey +to the angler than the trout who is busy with a steady diet of hatching +duns. It is doubtful whether the advice often tendered to the +over-eager, to allow the rising trout to get well set at the wicket, is +really sound, as, by the time he is well set, his appreciation of what +is offered him has become greatly sharpened by a prolonged experience of +it as it should be, and he is as likely as not to refuse anything that +does not appeal to him as being identical with the natural insect he has +been absorbing so much of; and I know no more likely fish to take, if +you get your fly to him right, than a trout which is cruising up to his +feeding-ground, picking a fly or two on the way. Freely I confess that +whole rises have passed me too many a time without my having succeeded +in ascertaining what the trout would take, and on such days—and again on +days when trains have borne me to the water too late for the morning +rise—I might frequently, but for my friend the casual feeder, have +brought home a toom creel. + +The places where the casual feeder is to be found at home are various; +but, speaking generally, the casual feeder’s position depends on the +nature of the fare which the time of day affords him, and the odds are +long that from the end of May, when the first of the sedges (the +so-called Welshman’s Button—the “Dun Cut” of the fathers of angling) +comes upon the water, that position will be found under the banks where +sedge-flies and other bank insects most do congregate, and from which +they venture upon the water; at bridges where a constriction of the +current concentrates the food; at bridges where spinners are apt to +dance until their dancing minutes be done, and sedges often shelter in +brickwork; at hatches where woodlice and other insects harbour in the +wood, and are prone to drop into the current; in pockets in the weeds; +and in ditches and carriers where the hatch of duns is sparse and +unsatisfactory, and a trout must rely upon other resources for his daily +sustenance. This may be floating or subaqueous, but is more likely in +carriers and swift waters to be subaqueous, inasmuch as it is only for a +brief period that a hatch takes place; but subaqueous forms of fly-life +are always about (though, no doubt, sparsely at other times than that of +the rise), and experience proves that when no definite rise is in +progress, no trout that is on the alert finds it easy to resist a nymph +who has left his shelter. Hence, given the willingness of the trout to +feed, and the absence of a steady diet of dominant attractiveness, there +is every inducement for him to be of an open mind as to the provender +that will seduce him. + +Then there is our friend the “tailer,” of whom more elsewhere. + +Thus, instead of spiking his rod when the morning rise is over, and +taking his Walton or his Marcus Aurelius or his Omar Khayyám from his +pocket, let the wise angler concentrate on the casual feeder; and if his +reward be not great, there is every chance of its being quite +respectable, and he may be saved the humiliation of an empty creel. + + + OF THE FREQUENTATION OF DITCHES, DRAINS, AND CARRIERS. + +I know of no sight more gloomy than that of a golfer painfully tramping +from shot to shot. But perhaps the next gloomiest sight is the angler +who, with perhaps but a single day at his disposal, lounges hour by hour +by the side of the main river, waiting with such patience as he can +muster for the rise which comes not. Let us suppose that he is either +unable or too magnanimous to fish the wet fly, that there are no fish +lying, either visibly or inferentially, in convenient places under his +own bank, so that they could be fished to with a dry sedge or a Red +Quill. Let him come with me, and we will pull some sport out of adverse +conditions. Let us begin here, where this hatch is letting a goodly +supply of water into this carrier for the watering of the meadows. Be it +known unto you, O angler, that the trout of ditches and carriers are far +less affected by the rise of duns, and far readier to feed at all times +or any time, than those fish of the main river. Here our choice is to +fish either a sunk fly, suggesting a nymph (for here an upwinged dun can +hardly get through undrowned), a floating fly resembling one of the +sedges which dodge about the camp-sheathing or a good-sized Wickham’s +Fancy. Search all the tail of the run carefully with one or the other of +these patterns, and it shall go hard with you if you do not get a +chance, at any rate, from a passable fish—possibly more than one. + +A little lower down the carrier runs through a culvert, and, if the +hay-makers have not got him out, one is likely to find quite a +respectable trout just below the arch, and he is to be had if you fish +him right. Farther down there is a low wood bridge, through which the +stream flows briskly, and below this there are usually two or three +feeding fish. For some reason these are specially sensitive to shadow. I +have had many fish from this spot from both sides, but never one from +the right, or west, side after two o’clock, or from the other side +before two. Having fished these fish, and caught or lost or put them +down, let us move over to the next piece of water. It is slow, and has +little weed. If it had been a day with a ruffle of wind, or had the +drowners turned a good current through, we would have fished it up yard +by yard; but to-day it is no good. But here, a bit farther on, a brisk +stream runs through a little hatch, and for a hundred and fifty yards or +so makes a most merry little length. Keep low in the long grass, fish it +foot by foot, and, so far as you can, turn _down_ all the fish you +scare. If you send one up, sit down and wait. It will not be long ere +the others recover their equanimity. On a good day you should get your +two brace from this length, either with No. 1 Red Sedge, No. 1 Red +Quill, No. 0 Pink Wickham or No. 0 Tup’s Indispensable wet, or No. 0 +Wickham’s Fancy. Now let us wind up along another brisk little piece of +water, perhaps fifteen feet wide, which races in a series of runs, and +stretches right across the meadows. It is known as the Highland Burn, +and it is full of sporting fish, and you must take the chance of hooking +a half-pounder along with your chance of a fish nearer two pounds. And +do not neglect the ditch which runs in at right angles halfway up. I +have seen a past-master take no less than three capital trout from those +few yards in one day, turning each as hooked down into the Highland +Burn, and killing him there. + + + OF THE NEGOTIATION OF TAILERS. + +Authority hath it that “the best policy is, perhaps, to leave tailing +fish alone”; but the busy man, who only gets an occasional day’s +fishing, to whom that advice is too trying and disappointing (meaning +me), was recommended to try an Orange Bumble or a Furnace. With an +exception I shall presently refer to, it is some years since I have had +any experience of tailing trout, for an alteration in a weir has made +such a difference in the pace and level of a length on the chalk stream +I most do fish, that whereas in the old days the tailer used to be a +common sight there, nowadays it is the greatest rarity. But in those old +days the tailer was my stand-by. If—as was frequently the case—I made +naught of the morning rise, I would betake me to this length and sit +down gaily to the siege of each tailer in succession, with the +confidence that, unless I made some mistake and scared the fish—and +tailers are not too easily scared—sooner or later he was my fish. It was +often later, for I had to go on casting, casting, casting, in the hope +that the moment might come when my fly would be passing over the trout +at the moment when his head was raised, and he was taking breath before +another big go at the shrimps and other food in the weed-beds. The +frequent casting gave much opportunity for mistakes, and not +infrequently I scared my fish, after wasting half an hour or more over +him; but, on the other hand, I seldom failed to secure at least one +fish, and oftener a leash. The method was simplicity itself. I sat down +below my fish, and dropped a Pink Wickham a yard or so above where his +tail dimpled the surface, and floated it down over him quite dry. This +was repeated so long as the fish was there, but if he lifted his head in +time to see the fly come over him, there seemed to be some mysterious +attraction in that pattern which forbade him to refuse it. Whether this +is so in other waters I know not, but I often regret the obliteration of +the old race of tailers. They were a great stand-by, and always put up a +big battle when hooked. The size of fly was 00 for smooth water, but in +a ruffle the single cipher size proved better medicine. + +The single occasion above referred to was in May, 1909, in a different +part of the river. The water was running thinly over a broad shallow, +very full up with weed-beds, and, instead of standing nearly +perpendicularly on their heads in order to tail, large numbers of trout +and grayling were grubbing at an acute angle with the bottom among the +weed-beds, and with violent wriggles of head and body dislodging small +insects, which they pursued with rushes plainly marked upon the surface, +ending, at the moment of capture of the prey, with swirls. I did not put +up a Pink Wickham, because I had another experiment to make. In the +previous July I had caught three brace before eleven o’clock on a nymph +imitated in olive seal’s fur from one found in the mouth of a trout on +the previous day, and I wanted to give it a trial here, on the chance +that it might be found that it was nymphs, and not shrimps, that the +tailing fish were shaking out. So, keeping the artificial nymph soaking +at the end of my line in the run at my feet, I despatched it every now +and then across the course of the trout, when, desisting from their +grubbing, they pursued the flying quarry. It was generally the case +that, by the time the fly lit, the fish was careering off in some +different direction; but several fish pursued my fly and swirled at it, +and one takable trout and one short of the regulation twelve inches +succeeded in taking it. It was a short and most inconclusive experiment, +but, if occasion serves, it will be renewed. + + + OF THE FASCINATION OF BRIDGES. + +Years ago, before ever I knew the Upper Itchen, there was a wooden farm +bridge which crossed the main river to carry produce. Whether the bridge +fell into decay through disuse and neglect consequent upon the fields on +the east side being separately let to another farmer, or whether the +separate letting occurred because the bridge became dangerous, and would +have cost too much to repair, anyhow, when I came first to know this +particular part of the river in the early eighties, there was nothing +left of the bridge except a stump or two, green with slime, brown with +rot, showing just above water, or intercepting weed—just that and a band +of bottom a little higher than the river-bed above and below, as if the +made bottom which had carried the bridge still persisted. Even the +stumps are long gone the way of all stumps, and the made bed is only +just traceable if you know where to find it. But for all that, after all +these years, this is the place in the river where trout are to be found +feeding, if they are found feeding anywhere; and they feed in much the +same way, seeming secure, yet really shy, as the trout feed under or +just below all the bridges on the river. All bridge trout seem to be +shy. Some bridges make shyer trout than others. I knew one—a +railway-bridge on that length—under which in four-and-twenty years I +never got a trout, or even a rise, for all I tried persistently, wet and +dry, until 1908, and then only because on that particular day a strong +ruffle of wind blew up the arch and made good big waves. Then I got a +brace to a floating Tup’s Indispensable, and lost another fish. Whether +it is the holt into which to run at hint of danger, or the insects which +haunt the woodwork, or the clear space of unweeded water in which to +swim, or what not, bridges seem to have a special fascination for trout; +and if the fly (preferably a small sedge) can be delicately dropped over +the fish as if it fell from the woodwork, the chances of getting him are +much increased. + +Trout seem specially watchful at bridges, and, if the water be not too +fast, will turn to take a fly which is aimed to hit them on the tail. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + MAINLY TACTICAL + + + OF THE DELIBERATE DRAG. + +Of all trials of the chalk-stream angler, perhaps drag is the worst. Yet +even drag may be made use of on occasion, to add to the weight of the +creel. Years back, on the Erlaubnitz in South Germany, I sat by a +mill-head on a blazing and wellnigh hopeless September afternoon. The +water was low, much of the head having been run off by the sawmill, and +such little current as there was confined itself almost entirely to the +centre. Brown and dirty-looking weeds topped the surface along my side +of the head. Suddenly I detected a tiny dimple in a little spot where, +among the weeds, an eighteen-inch square of clean surface showed itself. +I despatched my fly—a Landrail and Hare’s Ear Sedge on a No. 3 hook—and +by good luck or good management it dropped neatly on the spot. I waited. +Three minutes passed. Nothing happened. Then I thought to recover my fly +and drop it again in the hole, but with rather less delicacy, so as to +attract attention to its fall. But first I had to recover it. I moved it +gently towards the side of the hole, but I could not prevent the effect +of a drag on the surface. Yet ere the fly had moved three inches a good +pound-and-a-half trout had it, and, after a game of pully-hauly in the +weeds, was duly brought to net. This was a limestone stream, and not a +chalk stream. + +But in August, 1908, I was on my way through the meadows to the main +Itchen, when in a much-weed-encumbered carrier I became aware of a good +trout lying in, and near the head of, a little pool of open water three +or four yards long at most, and perhaps a third as wide. My rod and cast +were ready, but no fly. So I knotted on a good big sedge—I think a No. 3 +Silver Sedge. The water was glassy smooth, and the current would not +have carried my fly the length of the open water in much under five +minutes. I was afraid to cast above the fish, or to right or left of his +head, for I knew it would send him scuttling to weed. I wanted to drop +the fly just behind his eyes, but I misjudged, and it fell several +inches short, almost upon his tail. I waited a moment; the trout lay +still, but evidently excited. Then I remembered my German experience, +and began to draw the fly along the surface. Immediately the trout +turned and slashed it, and was soundly hooked. Candour compels me to +admit that the gut was also smashed by a strike of unregulated violence; +but this is entirely beside the point, for it in no sense detracts from +the value of my illustration of the occasional serviceableness of the +calculated drag in still waters, even with the dry fly. + +My friend M. Bouglé acutely distinguishes drag of the kind here +described as the drag of _déplacement_, as compared with the drag of +_rétention_, which occurs on moving water. + +On the Pang at Bradfield resides a blacksmith named Holloway, who is a +first-rate angler, and I have seen him practise the deliberate drag on +fast water with the May-fly in a manner which in other hands would send +every trout scuttling to cover, but he did not put them down a bit. He +ties a May-fly—not a very pretty confection, but admirably constructed +for this purpose. The hackle, which is white, instead of standing out +more or less at right angles to the hook-shank, is so tied as to lie +almost flat upon it, and as a result the fly leaves practically no wake +when it is drawn over the fish, and the movement, which he practises +assiduously, far from scaring the fish, appears to be actually +attractive. Yet the Pang fish are quite wary, and liberties may not be +taken with them with impunity. In this case once more we have the drag +of _déplacement_, but it is hard to see why it should not be just as +fatal to the angler’s chances as the drag of _rétention_. + + + IN THE GLASS EDGE. + +A more unpromising May day than that I now tell of it would be hard to +conceive. The wind—from the west, with a bite of north in it—blew for +the most part dead across stream with strong, shuddering gusts, so +violent at times as to force the angler, taken unawares, two or three +steps nearer to the water’s edge, and more than once nearly to +precipitate him into the water between the sedgy tussocks which fringed +one side of this length of Upper Itchen. On the previous day there had +been a sparse skirmishing line of dark olives on the water at 10.15, +covering the main advance at 11.30; but to-day 10.30, 11, 11.30, noon, +and the intervening quarters, chimed from the belfry, without a fly +showing on the water or in the air. At noon the sun shone out for a few +moments, and made fitful reappearances at intervals till 1.30. Strolling +slowly and watchfully up the bank, with an eye on the far side, the +angler came upon Keeper Humphrey in attendance on another angler, and, +on his advice, put up a Red Quill on a No. 0 hook, for lack of one a +size larger, and, leaving the other a couple of hundred yards below, sat +down to wait for the rise. At length a little upwinged dun was seen in +sail in the glass edge, hugging the far bank as close as possible. For a +few yards it staggered down, battered by the gale, and then slid +sideways among the flags under pressure of a stronger gust than usual, +and was lost to sight. Pitiably sparse the fly were, and in half an hour +not more than half a dozen came in sight. All vanished disappointingly +among the flags. But at last the watcher was rewarded by seeing one +disappear in the centre of a tiny widening ring, which scarcely rippled +out beyond the narrow glass edge. In a moment distance was got by a +trial cast a yard or two downstream, and then the Red Quill dropped +perkily a foot above the spot where the dun had disappeared, and went +swiftly down on the full current—so swiftly that the angler did not +realize until a second too late that the same neb which had lain in wait +for the dun had sucked in the Red Quill. The strike was just too late, +and a pricked and badly scared trout dashed violently out into the +stream. + +In the next little bay another rising trout was located, but the +violence of the wind made it necessary to cast too tight a line in order +to drop the fly in the glass edge, with the result that a drag began to +develop immediately, putting the trout down. A few yards higher a clump +of trees made a sort of buffer of air, and the conditions were a bit +easier. Yet, though the sun came out and showed the Red Quill gliding +down the glass edge, the rise of the next trout was such a delicately +neat movement that the angler was once again almost taken unawares. Yet +this time he fastened, and his first fish of the day, after a +dumbfounded second’s pause, forged upstream with a rush, tearing line +from the protesting reel. He was not, however, allowed to reach his holt +among the weeds, but was turned, and netted out thirty yards or so +downstream, after a strenuous resistance. The hook was on the extreme +edge of his upper lip, but, fortunately, had taken a beautifully firm +hold. The spring-balance recorded one pound fifteen ounces—rather a +disappointment, for his hogback and splendour of general condition +suggested that he might, though a short sixteen inches, have topped two +pounds. + +A moment sufficed to knot on a fresh fly, and the very first cast into +the glass edge, to a glide where a dimple betrayed a trout, produced +another rise; and again the offer was accepted, and an excellent fight +put up. When eventually netted out, the fish proved to be one pound nine +ounces, and even handsomer and finer in condition than number one. He +was hooked exactly in the same way. There was one more rise spotted, the +fish risen, touched, and seen in the clearness of the glass edge to +flash some yards upstream under the far bank. Then the sun went in for a +spell, and all was over for the day. The other angler had a brace—two +pounds ten ounces and one pound odd—caught in the same way by floating +the Red Quill in the glass edge. + +This was one of those rare days when the dry fly can be fished into the +bays under the opposite bank. + + + OF THE CROSS-COUNTRY CAST. + +If questioned on their favourite mode of approaching a trout, it is +probable that nineteen out of every twenty chalk-stream anglers, if not +a larger proportion, would plump for the right bank with the rod held +over the water. It is doubtless the easiest method. It has various +advantages not difficult to enumerate, but it may be gravely doubted +whether it is the most effective from the point of view of catching +trout. Later under the caption (“The Bank of Vantage”) it is shown—with +what success the reader must judge—that in most states of the wind the +left bank has, contrary to general opinion (other things, of course, +being equal), decided advantages over the right. + +Apart from states of the wind, it must be apparent that, where the +horizontal cast is used, and often where the cast is not strictly +horizontal, the left bank has the advantage over the right that the rod +and line are less displayed, and far less likely to alarm a wary fish +under the angler’s own bank than a rod held more or less over the +stream; and, naturally, it is only to a fish under the angler’s own bank +that the cross-country cast is made. + +Secondly, there is the advantage that little of the line—possibly not +all of the gut, even—strikes the water. It is enough if the drag and the +recovery occur far enough below the fish not to disturb him; but if the +fly be the right pattern the drag is a matter of no consequence, as the +cross-country cast comes so lightly, so naturally, and with such +concealment of its perils from the trout, that as frequently as not he +takes the fly at the first offer. + +Of course, the vegetation on the bank may be such as to render it almost +impossible to deliver this cast without being hung up, but the angler +should not be too ready to assume that this is so. It is wonderful how, +with care, a light hand, and a little patience, the line may be +recovered, and what risks may be taken with comparative impunity. It is +often astonishing to see how anglers who pay largely for their fishing +rights, own costly rods, reels, and lines, and make long train journeys +for their fishing, will decline to tackle trout in difficult positions, +because it involves the possible loss of a cast or a fly—perhaps 1s. +2½d. all told—with the odds long in favour of the loss being no more +than a fly, and perhaps a point. I am ever for the adventure. The +certain smash does not always come off. + +But after the meadows are cut, and when the sedges are low, it is often +excellent sport to beat slowly up on either bank, left or right, keeping +in either case well inland—especially so on the right bank—and flicking +a grass-moth or a small sedge dry into every little eddy and bay, and on +to every likely spot under the bank, with never more than three feet—or +four feet at the outside—of gut on the water (often not more than +eighteen inches or a foot). Of course, a rod which will cast a short +line accurately is indispensable. The fly lights like thistledown. On +such days, if you work orthodoxly up your right bank, casting a longish +line upstream, and covering the water with it, you shall not hook one +fish for three which you shall take with the cross-country cast. Then, +to recover it, you must either draw it slowly over the edge where the +danger lies, or you must flick the line up so as to belly vertically +away from you, and pick the gut and fly cleanly off the water or the +herbage. And if occasionally one is hung up, what does it matter? If it +be of service, the angler is not denied such relief as the golfer freely +avails himself of when the deadly bunker has him for its own. + + + WHAT TUSSOCKS ARE FOR. + +This is not a riddle. It is a speculation which many anglers have +probably indulged in. Some have considered them a providential +arrangement for the protection of the business of the dealer in flies +and tackle, and verily they have their reasons. At one time I was of +that fold, but of late years I have had glimpses of the other side of +the shield, and I am beginning to realize that while tussocks may be put +along river-sides as a trial of the patience of some, yet for others +they are a means of providing an occasional trout, and generally a good +one, on days when disappointment is king. They are placed, in other +words, for the trout to stand on the upstream side and the angler on the +downstream side, the latter substantially concealed from the former. It +is equally true that the former is also concealed from the latter; but +this is of little consequence if, as is commonly the case, the screen is +not dense enough to hide the ring from the angler when the trout takes +his fly. + +But it may be said, “What is the use of the concealment if the +inevitable result of casting over the tussock is to get hung up in it?” +Well, it is not the inevitable result. There are two ways of tackling a +tussock. One implies the use of a short rod, or at least a rod capable +of an accurate short cast. It will not do to dib. At the first glimpse +of the rod-top over the tussock off goes your trout. No; the fly must be +cast, and cast so near the tussock that it drifts down to the fish just +above the tussock before it is necessary to pick it up for the next cast +with a forward flick. The other method is to cast over the river-side of +the drooping sedges of the tussock from such a distance that only the +gut and a foot or two of the casting line go over the tussock, and to +let the belly of the line dip in the water between you and the tussock. +Then, if the fly be not taken, the angler shall see his line coming back +smoothly and at the pace of the stream over the tussock, and finally the +fly shall be lifted off the surface with no disturbance, and be drawn by +the current softly over the tussock, and drop on the surface on his own +side, free for the next attempt. + +Obviously, this latter cast is not well suited to the left bank unless +the angler be left-handed, and, then, it is not suited to the right +bank, unless he be ambidextrous. _Ergo_, the rod which casts a short +line with delicacy and accuracy is a desideratum for this business, as +for many others. A heavy rod will seldom be found to do it. When you +have hooked your fish, he may be depended on to carry your line at once +free of the tussock. I have never had an instance to the contrary, and I +have rather an affection for the tussock cast. + + + OF THE ALLEGED MARCH BROWN. + +Everyone who reads much angling literature must have come across +ingenuous arguments on the wonderful usefulness of the March Brown even +on waters, such as the chalk streams, where the natural is not found. It +is so. I have found it so myself. One 6th of April some years back I +reached the Wey, to find that the Grannom was well on a good week in +advance of time, and that I had one imitation, and one only, in my box. +To improve upon the humour of the situation, I allowed—nay, I forced—the +first trout to whom I presented it to keep it. But was I downhearted? +No! I had some small floating March Browns, which, with the whisks +pinched off, made quite satisfactory Grannoms and saved the situation. +On other occasions I have used Grannom and March Brown indifferently to +represent the grass-moths with which the meadows and banks were teeming, +and they each did the job excellently and were most attractive. I have +also used the March Brown as a Brown Silver Horns, and to simulate other +sedges, and there is no doubt that it is an excellent fly, and, as +generally tied, quite a poor imitation of the natural March Brown, and +quite a passable imitation of almost anything else. + + + GENERAL FLIES AND FANCY FLIES. + +The alleged March Brown may be called a “general fly”—_i.e._, it is a +more or less satisfactory imitation, not merely of one, but of many +flies. In the same way the Red Quill is a general fly, covering not only +a series of red spinners, but also probably the whirling blue dun. Tup’s +Indispensable used as a floater is an excellent rendering of many red +spinners. The sunk variety is an efficient rendering of many nymphs. No. +1 Whitchurch is, I see, included by Mr. F. M. Halford among fancy flies; +but I should venture to class it as “general,” being an effective +presentment of the yellow dun series of flies. Greenwell’s Glory, again, +is a general fly, and with its starling-winged variants it represents a +series of olives, from the blue-winged olive to the iron blue (male). + +It is hard to say what precisely are fancy flies, unless one defines +them as flies which are not known to represent definitely any insect or +class of insects. Whether Wickham’s Fancy to the eye of a trout looks +the gorgeous golden thing which it does to mankind it is hard to say. I +have floated one on water over a mirror, and the reflected image did not +look golden at all, but a pale, dim green, much like the colour seen +through gold beaten so thin that it is almost transparent. The Pink +Wickham may seem to the trout to be a sedge with a greenish body. The +Red Tag _may_ have its living prototype. The Soldier Palmer is supposed +to represent the soldier beetle. But in most of these cases it is +impossible to say what the artificial represents, or may represent, in +life, and its attraction is apt to be that of something bright and +garish which appeals to curiosity or tyranny in the trout, rather than +to appetite. Indeed, why a trout should take any artificial fly is a +puzzle to me. The very best are not really very like the real thing. One +thing is clear: It is not form which appeals to the trout, but colour +and size. + +I know a skilful angler who, when he ties on a new split-winged floater, +rumples and breaks up the fibre of its wings with his fingers before +using it. This he does for the excellent reason that it pays. His theory +is that it lets the light through; but form is entirely sacrificed. + +It is a curious fact that, though the Test and Itchen are “by ordinar’” +clear, yet double-dressed floaters can be successfully used on them, +which would do little or nothing on other streams, of which the Wandle +occurs to me as an example. If I had a day on the Wandle, I should take +care to provide myself with single-winged patterns. Can it be that the +clearness of the Test and Itchen is such that the fly looks distinct +enough by reflected light, while transmitted light is necessary to +render the fly noticeable on such streams as the Wandle? In any case, +when visiting a strange river, the angler should see if the fish will or +will not stand double-dressed floaters, if he has a fancy for that build +of fly. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + CONSIDERATIONS MORAL, TACTICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND INCIDENTAL + + + OF FAITH. + +Among the many uncertainties which attend the sport of fly fishing, +there is one thing that may be laid down as certain, and that is that no +consistent measure of success attends a lure, whether wet, dry, or +semi-submerged, in which the angler has not faith; and it may be +shrewdly suspected that much of the ill-success which has attended the +use of the wet fly upon chalk streams in the past is due to lack of +confidence on the part of the angler. It has been laid down so +positively by the high-priests of the dry fly that the wet fly has no +chance compared with it—at any rate, on smooth water—and it has been so +freely stated that crack wet-fly anglers come down to the chalk streams +confident in their powers to make an exhibition of chalk-stream fish, +only to retire defeated and converted, that it is little wonder that the +chalk-stream angler who tries the wet fly does it half-heartedly; and it +is probable that the North-Country man coming to practise his art upon +South-Country streams, and accustomed to catch his trout in considerable +numbers, soon becomes disheartened by failure to do the like on rivers +where two or three brace is a good bag. Probably he casts a much shorter +line than is advisable on chalk streams, and so scares off or puts down +his fish, and discouragement and the sceptical attitude of his +South-Country hosts and keepers knock him off his game before he has had +time to adjust himself to the (to him) novel conditions. + +Fishing a chalk stream with a wet fly is not quite like fishing a +mountain stream or North-Country river, and it is not a game to be +learnt in an hour or a day. But if the angler will fix his mind firmly +on the fact that the wet fly was for centuries the only method in use on +chalk streams, and that it brought excellent baskets to good anglers in +the past, he may set to work with confidence that in the right +conditions the wet fly will kill, and kill well, at this day, and he may +set himself with equal confidence to find out for himself how it is +done. And let him not be disturbed by the fact that there are days or +hours when it has not a chance against the dry fly; for there are days +and hours when the dry fly has not a chance against it, and there are +other occasions when the trout will take either with approximately equal +freedom. + +Simultaneously with my own experiments recorded in this volume, Mr. F. +M. Halford was engaged in establishing and proving his latest series of +patterns, in which he endeavours to approximate more closely than ever +before to the coloration and attitude of the natural insects, especially +in his series of spinners. In an article over the signature “Detached +Badger,” which appeared in the _Field_ of October 22, 1904, Mr. Halford +was at some pains to prove that these spinners must be taken floating; +but the feature of these patterns is that they do not, like the old +patterns, sit cocked upon the surface, lifted half-hackle-high above it, +but, being sparsely dressed, lie low on the water, practically flush +with the surface, and thus achieve a closer approximation to the spent +natural insect than did the old patterns. This, as much as the more +exact coloration, may account for the success of these patterns. And, +after all, a fly that is flush with the water is perilously close to the +edge of wet. Tup’s Indispensable fished as a spinner in the evening rise +will often kill better semi-submerged and flush with the surface than +thoroughly dried and oiled. It usually serves me well, and I have +accordingly scarcely tried Mr. F. M. Halford’s new patterns, but when I +have done so it has been wet that they have been taken, and not dry. + +I mentioned a few pages back that another Itchen angler once fished the +whole of a season—it may have been two—with the Red Quill in various +shades and sizes, and with differences introduced by the presence or +omission of tinsel tags, and he achieved a success with that one pattern +or type quite as great as he enjoyed when he allowed himself the full +range of the hundred best and some others. + +Clearly, he and “Detached Badger” have had faith—the faith which, if it +does not move mountains, will at least move trout. And the angler who +takes his courage in both hands and experiments boldly with the wet fly +fished upstream to his trout, or into the place where his trout should +be, will find his faith, as mine has been, not without its reward. + + + OF THE BANK OF VANTAGE. + +In looking back on a day’s fly fishing, one can realize how much has +depended upon the correct selection of the bank to fish from, and an +examination of some of the more important of the general considerations +governing choice may not be amiss. Special conditions, such as height of +banks, the trees and bushes thereon, and the accessibility of the water +therefrom, may force upon us deviations from what our judgment would +otherwise dictate, and it is impossible to dogmatize about these. There +are also cases where the winding character of the stream presents such a +constant variety of conditions that it is impossible to say that at the +moment of selection one bank is more worthy of choice than the other. +But, subject to such special conditions, there are a few general +principles which it is well to bear in mind in considering from which +side we shall direct our attack. + +The first of these is to avoid such a position as will throw the shadow +of angler or rod over the fish. This is an obvious consideration, and +one that is easy of application. But it does not necessarily follow +that, because the sun will throw one’s shadow—even a long or formidable +shadow—on to the stream from, say, the right bank, one must necessarily +adopt the other. It may be that the shadow will be straight across or +even behind the angler, or, at any rate, in such a position as, for +instance, not to interfere with his casting upstream, or upstream and +across, and the river bottom may not be so bare that the fall of his +shadow will send the trout scurrying upstream to disturb and put down +the feeding fish above. In narrow streams, however, the effect of shadow +in bolting fish upstream is necessarily far more pronounced than in +streams of moderate width—say twelve to twenty yards. In like manner, +the narrow stream should not, if possible, even with a favouring +upstream breeze, be fished from the right bank, which necessitates +holding the rod and waving line and fly over the water, or one may see +one’s hopes laid low for half an hour or more, and a good stretch +spoiled by the bolting of fish which, approached from the other bank by +a more or less “cross-country cast,” with the rod held low to the right, +might have been brought to basket or turned downstream. + +Probably, however, the most generally governing consideration is the +direction of the wind in relation to the general trend of the stream. +Perhaps the majority of fly-fishermen, if asked to choose a bank with an +upstream or downstream wind, would choose the right without hesitation. +But there may be a good deal to be said for the other side, apart even +from the sun and the narrowness of the stream. For instance, with an +upstream wind and a fairly wide river, especially if it be swift, the +angler on the right bank is practically confined to his own bank and +midstream fishing. If he casts for the opposite bank, he finds it +extremely difficult to be accurate, and a drag which inevitably puts the +fish down is almost certain to be set up. On the left bank, however, not +only can he approach the left bankers more closely than he dare approach +the right bankers when fishing on the right bank, not only can he tackle +the midstream fish equally well, but he can cut under and against the +wind and get across to the opposite bank far more accurately from the +left bank than from the right, where the wind follows his hand. + +Take next the case of a downstream wind. Here the angler will want to +consider what he has to do. Does he wish to fish his own bank or the +opposite bank, or both? Casting from the right bank, he can cut under +the wind and get his fly over to the opposite bank far better than he +could from the left; but is it worth doing? If he can float his fly for +a reasonable distance without drag, it may well be; but if the current +be so strong as to set up an almost immediate drag, he may be +practically confined to his own bank. So he would be on the left side; +but whereas casting from the right bank he would be apt to find the +point of his gut cast forced outwards and downwards by the wind, and be +constantly landing his line on the sedges or bank, when casting from the +other side his line would fall upon the water, and the gut-point and fly +be driven inwards so as to search the water quite close under the bank, +just like a natural fly. Moreover, it would not be driven so far inward +as it would be driven outward when cast from the opposite side, for in +dropping over the bank-edge the fly and gut-point would enter, before +the force of the cast is spent, into that little cushion of calm to be +found just under the bank, and would generally straighten out in a +manner to command admiration both from men and trout. + +Take next the case of an upstream wind slightly across from the right +bank to the left. Here it is even more difficult for an angler on the +right bank to fish his own bank than for an angler on the left bank, +while he has more command in cutting across to the far side from the +left bank than from the right. If, on the other hand, the wind be +upstream and off the left bank, by standing back a bit and using a short +cross-country cast the angler may get his fly very neatly over most of +the fish under his own bank, and can cut across more easily than he +could from the right bank. + +Take, again, the case of a wind downstream and across from the right +bank to the left. Here again the angler on the left bank is in the +superior position for negotiating his own bank, casting almost straight +into the wind, and letting fly and point be deflected under his own +bank. On the right bank the angler would be apt to have his fly flung +out towards midstream, and the short cross-country cast would be apt to +miscarry. On the other hand, if the wind be downstream and across from +the left bank, the advantage lies slightly with the right bank, but it +is nothing like so marked (assuming, as we have been doing from the +first, that the angler is right-handed) as in the converse case. + +On the whole, therefore, it will be seen that, contrary to the generally +received opinion, unless the wind be fairly direct upstream or (for +fishing the opposite bank) down, the left bank is almost invariably the +bank of vantage. + + + OF COURAGE AND THE JEOPARDIZING OF TUPPENCE HA’PENNY. + +That, my friends, is almost the extreme price of a trout-fly. Some cost +less. Yet how often shall you see an angler whose equipment for the +taking of trout has run into pounds, and whose railway fare and +reckoning at his inn are substantial items of expenditure upon the same +object, throw away most sporting occasions for the attainment of his end +because, forsooth, he is sure to be hung up or weeded or smashed or +something equally delightful—and bang would go tuppence ha’penny! I have +no patience with this sort of thing. The more hopeless the prospect of +getting out a trout from an impossible place, the more determined I am +to try for him. _De l’audace, encore de l’audace—toujours de l’audace!_ +In May, 1909, just before the May-fly began, I was by the river-side, +when I heard a loud smacking sound, and, peering through a willow-bush, +I saw a fine trout cruising on an eddy and sucking down flies with +hearty enjoyment. If I cast over him from behind the bush, I should have +to play him on a six-ounce rod with x x x gut between a thorn-bush which +I could touch with my right hand and a willow I could touch with my +left. There were snags above and snags below. Did I hesitate? Only long +enough to tie on a new Crosbie Alder, then long enough for him to reach +the top of his beat, and then I dropped the fly behind him just before +he turned. He was the satisfactory side of four pounds, and I got his +successor next day out of the same place—three pounds six ounces. A +beautiful brace! Luck! Of course it was luck, but I shouldn’t have had +it if I hadn’t taken risks. + +There was a Kennet trout under a willow in May-fly time. A weed-piled +snag in the stream just below the droop of the willow made it impossible +to get a fly over him by casting above the willow and floating down. +There was just one possible way—to make a slanting downward cut which +might bring the fly down between branches in a sort of dip in the tree, +and drop it on the fish’s nose. I left two flies in the tree, but I did +the trick and got the fish. He was only two pounds six ounces, but I +thought he was bigger. Still—— + +Then there was a fish which lay just above a hatch-hole through which +water ran into the meadows. The inevitable thing for him to do when +hooked was to bolt down the hatch-hole. But somehow he didn’t, and I got +him. There was a pound-and-a-half trout taking tiny pale duns on the +edge of a small pile of weeds collected against a broken bough of a +tree, into which he was sure to bolt when hooked. But somehow he didn’t, +and he was steered to the landing-net with a No. 000 dun on gossamer gut +attached to his nose. Then there was that trout which I got over a +barbed wire crossing the stream eight or ten yards away. + +There are countless such instances—I tell of some more under the head of +“Impossible Places”—but there is one thing that may safely be deposed +to, and that is, that there is no place so desperate that, with luck and +management, you may not get a well-hooked trout out of it. + + + OF IMPOSSIBLE PLACES. + +The habit of a lightly hooked trout, of floundering on the surface, is +too well known to need enlarging on. Sometimes his antics will be varied +by leaps into the air. But is the tendency of a hard-held fish to go to +weed or snag equally well realized? Yet from a consideration of these +two established tendencies may not a highly unorthodox method of +extricating a good fish from the impossible position be evolved? What is +the theory? This: Let him think he is lightly hooked. + +It was on the banks of the Itchen that the first glimmerings of the idea +suggested themselves. A novice with the dry fly was walking disconsolate +up the stream, bemoaning himself that he could not find a rising fish. +Coming up with a brother angler just about to settle down to a rising +trout in some quick water, he was invited to cast over it. The fly +covered the right spot, and brought up his troutship, who fastened, and, +turning at once, bolted at express speed downstream. The novice, +unaccustomed to anything more formidable than Devonshire brook trout, +disregarded his companion’s advice, “Run, man, run downstream for all +you’re worth!” and backed, open-mouthed, slowly upstream, letting out +line as freely as the reel (a checkless one) would let it go. So long as +the line put no check upon him the trout ploughed downstream close to +the surface, but the moment the reel was empty and he felt the check he +was deep in a weed-bed. He stayed there till the angler had reeled up +and put on another fly. _The checked fish goes to weed._ That was the +first lesson. + +The second was in this wise: On a September morning a good many years +back, a brace of trout were rising, a yard or so apart, above a tree +which overhung the same water on the side where the angler stood +knee-deep in a swampy reed-bed. It was possible to reach them if, +holding by his left hand to a bough, and resting one foot on a root +while dangling the other in the water, he hung over the river at an +angle of forty-five degrees, and threw his line underhand up the stream. +But how if he hooked his fish? There was a bank of weeds, dense and +long, a yard or two above. Well, he must chance it. The likelihood of +losing the fish seemed overwhelming, the chance of killing him slight; +for the position was so awkward that, in order to get back to terra +firma, there was nothing for it but to tuck the rod under the arm and +trust to chance while recovering equilibrium and a footing. Yet the +angler got both these fish. Situated as he was he could put no pressure +on them; he could not even keep the line taut. But each of the fish when +hooked came floundering and splattering unresistingly downstream, trying +to throw out the stinging insect that adhered to his jaw. By the time +the angler was prepared to deal with him the fish was in open water and +was easily played. Result, a brace of one and a quarter pounders and the +second lesson. _The unchecked fish flounders on the surface._ + +What these two lessons have been worth to the angler it would be tedious +to relate, but one or two instances may illustrate. There was that +fish—one and three-quarter pounds he proved—rising on the far side of a +dense bank of weeds in a channel two feet wide. He had to be approached +with reverence on one’s face, and from twenty feet out in the meadow. He +took the Pink Wickham at the first time of asking, and the angler, +having fastened, dropped his rod-point instantly. The fish with a +startled plunge rushed up the channel and out into the open water, and +began to flounder. Before he knew where he was the angler turned him, +brought him down the right side of the dangerous weed-bank, and duly +netted him out. + +Then, again, there was that black fish between two pollard willows on +the Darenth. He was rising eighteen inches out from the bank. The +willows were two yards apart, and their roots formed a mass of snags +below him, while just downstream of them was a plank bridge a foot above +the river. Here again it was a case of kneeling far out in the meadow +and dropping the Yellow Dun exactly over the nose of the fish. He came +with the most confiding simplicity. Had he been checked he would have +been in the snags before one could say “Knife,” but the angler, mindful +of his lesson, held him not. So it befell that he rushed out into +midstream and leapt four several times, much as does a pricked fish that +is not hooked at all. But ere he could do more the angler was on terms +with him, and held him out from the bank, up from the bottom, and away +from the plank bridge, till the landing-net received his one pound six +ounces. + +Finally, let the tale be told of a trout of the Kennet that had his holt +in a corner of a little bay, whence a willow-bush had fallen into the +river, leaving on the bank side a tangle of broken roots, in the river +to the right, some three yards off, the half-submerged willow, while +above and below were heavy patches of long swaying weed. It was an ideal +place for a trout to feed in—and to break away. The water came into the +bay in a little defined channel between weeds, and in this a foot below +the entry a sizable neb was showing at intervals. A small Green Champion +May dropped exactly in the channel, and trotted down the prescribed +distance and disappeared. Again the tactics of the loosened line, again +the hooked fish rushed out from his almost impregnable holt into the +open, and was presently netted out by the triumphant angler—a handsome +and, he thinks, a not ill-deserved three pounds ten ounces. A week later +the same tactics produced another fish of two pounds eleven ounces from +the same hole. + + + OF THE USE OF THE LANDING-NET. + +There is a common superstition among anglers that the primary use of a +landing-net is to land fish. Let us rather say that the use of a +landing-net, rightly understood, is to assist in the capture of fish. +Not to catch fish, for the catching of fish in the landing-net is mere +poacher’s work, but to aid in the catching. Some anglers tell you you +must never show your net to a fish until ready for netting. But why not, +if it will help you to kill him? There are many more or less desperate +cases where the net may be of the profoundest service long before it is +called to operate at the final ceremony of dipping out. I will give one +or two examples in an ascending scale of complexity. + +Firstly, a new use for the handle. Under the left bank of a +South-Country chalk stream a trout is taking every dun that goes down +alongside the cluster of cut weed under which he shelters. The angler’s +Gold-ribbed Hare’s Ear lighting delicately a foot above, with the gut +resting on the weed, is accepted and carried straight down into the +weed-bed below. The angler reels up tight over the fish, but fails to +move him. Ah, there is the long-handled landing-net! A few +judiciously-placed prods with the butt bring him plunging stupidly out, +and he is bustled down into open water and promptly dipped out with the +other end. + +Secondly, the use of the mesh. Scene: A hooked fish racing downstream +towards a dense weed-bed on the angler’s side. The angler offers the +net, and the fish sheers off into midstream, and is towed past the +dangerous obstruction. Very simple examples these. + +The third and next is more complex. Scene: A hatch-hole which lets water +from the same stream into a carrier in the water-meadows. Camp-sheathing +on both sides of the hatch, supported by three successive crossbars from +four feet to eight feet long as the sides diverge. Under the middle bar +lies a good trout, very evidently feeding. Problem, how to get him. It +is impossible to cast underneath the crossbars. One can only cast over +them, and trust to luck and judgment to get the fish out if one hooks +him. If he runs downstream the line is doubled over the crossbar and a +break is assured. But how is he to be prevented? The angler knows that +under the apron of the hatch there is a big hole, and he sets to work +with confidence. The fly is dropped from below, just over the third or +shortest bar. The drag of the oiled silk line brings it back till it +passes over the third bar, and drops softly on the water with a foot or +two to float before it can drag. Presently it is taken, and the hooked +fish has turned to bolt down the carrier. But there the angler is ready. +Landing-net in hand, he gesticulates wildly at the advancing fish, which +bolts upstream again and buries itself in the hole under the apron. +Softly the rod is passed under the second and lowest crossbars, then the +point is brought down to the water’s edge, and with a steady strain and +a jarring tap on the butt of the rod the trout is brought down out of +his fastness and killed in due course. + +Lastly, another example of a similar method. Imagine a strong stream +some three yards wide and one hundred yards or so long, running down +from a similar hatch to a big cross-dyke reaching out on both sides. The +angler is on the right bank, and the current turns to the left on +reaching the dyke. The water for the latter half of the carrier is too +deep for wading. In the broad gravel shallow at the tail of the patch a +big two-pounder is lying. The angler has already been run by a much +smaller fish down to the verge of the carrier, where the stream turns +off, and only netted his trout just in time. For various reasons the +other bank is unsuitable to fish from. To begin with, the big trout is +not accessible from that side. Even from the left bank it is difficult +to cast over him, but presently our artist with the landing-net gives +the appropriate response to the dimpling rise with which he takes the +Ginger Quill, and a good sound working connection is established. For a +moment the angler does not put a pull on him, and he moves out into the +strong water, shaking his head to get rid of that objectionable insect +that has fastened in his palate. The angler rapidly winds in line, and +begins to hold him firmly. His aim is to keep him tiring himself in the +strong water—not to drive him up under the apron (it is unnecessary to +run that risk now), but to keep him from running down. The stream is +narrow enough to enable the angler, by dipping his rod-point to right or +left, to turn the fish from every upward rush to such a holt, but in a +few moments comes the downward rush. Now for the landing-net. In an +instant the fish has turned and is back facing the strong water, and +engaged in fighting to get up into the shelter of the hatch. But again +and again he is turned and brought down to the edge of the gravel shelf +where the stream is strongest, when a hint from the landing-net sends +him up again straining with all his force against both stream and line. +Presently, tiring of the game, and failing in his efforts to rub out the +hook against the camp-sheathing, he turns and bolts downstream with such +suddenness as to evade the threatening net, and is gone forty yards +before the angler is level with him. Then again a threat of the net +turns him, and he makes a dash for a weed-bed some ten yards or so +above. From this he has to be turned down, and his downward rush stopped +with the net as before. From this point the fight resolves itself into a +series of downstream rushes, alternating with much briefer trips +upstream, terminated by the necessity in each case for pulling the trout +down out of the weed-bed he is bolting for. At last, at the very bottom +of the straight, on the edge of the dyke, the fish, not yet half beaten, +has to be dragged willy-nilly into the landing-net, or else he must +escape down the dyke which streams away on the far side. + +Finally, and in conclusion, one more example. The _locus in quo_ is a +piece of fast water some eight or ten yards long, a sort of +tumbling-bay, from which the water escapes at racing pace through a +culvert twelve or fourteen feet long, which passes under a farm road, +thence along some two hundred yards of narrow weedy carrier to an +irrigation hatch. In the tumbling-bay are three or four fine fish, one +of them something over two pounds. All are feeding on something under +water, probably nymphs. A dry fly would drag at once. A double-hooked +Greenwell’s Glory, as used on North-Country rivers, might do the trick. +But the hooked fish will to a certainty bolt down the culvert, and then +it will be a case of smash at once, or weeding with a long line, and the +impossible task of bringing the fish up the racing stream into the +tumbling-bay again, or of passing the ten-foot rod through a twelve-foot +culvert. Happy thought! there on the bank is a plank that has been +floated down the stream above, there is some string, and there is the +watcher to lend a hand. He receives the landing-net, and goes below some +fifteen yards or so. Presently the fly drops well soaked on the water, +and swings over the best of the trout, which the next minute has raced +down and through the culvert, tearing out line until—yes, until the +menacing net in the hands of the watcher sends him securely to weed. Now +for the plank. A minute serves to tie on the rod and to send the plank +floating down through the culvert. The watcher is ready on the other +side with the landing-net, and draws the plank to the side. The rod is +released, and soon the angler stands over the fish with a short line. +Now for the net again. A few well-directed prods with the butt brings up +the fish, who bolts for the culvert. But the net is before him on the +far side, and he gets back into the tumbling-bay. Guiding the line with +the butt, a pull is got on him which soon brings him down again below +the culvert. The only remaining dangers are the weeds and the hatch-hole +at the far end. From this last the net is again ready to keep him, and +the great battle ends as every such battle should. + + + OF THE WEEDING TROUT. + +It has been shown how it was frequently possible to extract a big trout +from an apparently impossible fastness by a tactical trick. Every angler +knows that a trout who is, or conceives himself to be, lightly hooked +will thrash about upon the surface in his effort to dislodge the fly, +very often with success, though not always; for occasionally the hook +will have a small but sufficient hold in some inaccessible place, such +as the corner of the jaw, and all is well with the angler. It is by +playing upon this idiosyncrasy and slackening on a fish immediately +after it is hooked that the trout may frequently be induced to run from +an impenetrable holt into the open in order to kick himself free from +the surface. The same idiosyncrasy may be worked upon with a weeding +fish, with gratifying results. If the angler hooks a fish which turns +and bolts downstream below him, he will note that the fish will not go +to weed until he is held. The moment he is held he will whip into the +first available weed-bed. That is the first step in our argument. The +next is this: The harder he is held the more frightened he becomes, and +the deeper and the more desperately he will burrow in the weeds. + +But one day it occurred to me to try upon the trout that has got to weed +the tactics of inducing him to believe himself lightly hooked. To let +him go altogether for a time till he recovered his nerve and came out +was an old and often unsuccessful device. To hand-line him was to put a +much harder pull upon him than could be put on with a rod, and though it +sometimes worked, it was by no means always successful. For the new +method, therefore, it was necessary to maintain a light pull upon the +fish, but so light that the rod-top gave to every movement, leaving the +fish almost as free as if he were loose, but with just the difference +that there was enough strain to keep him beating, and enough to provide +a fulcrum for him to beat from. The experiment was brilliantly +successful. On the first occasion on which it was tried, three trout +(all over two pounds) were hooked in a weedy portion of the Itchen upon +the lightest tackle and a delicate rod. Each went to weed. The angler +held his hand high (for the rod was but nine feet), and kept the very +lightest strain, with the result that the fish began to beat among the +weeds as he would on the surface, and in a few moments had lashed the +weeds aside and kicked himself free of them, and was on top. Once there +he was resolutely hauled downstream and bustled into the net. This +method has been worth many a good fish since that day; indeed, given a +fairly soundly hooked fish, there have been no failures. Of course, +nothing will save a fish so lightly hooked that the first touch of weed +or obstruction releases him. In applying this method, the light rod, +which has come to be so common, has an advantage over the big, heavy, +and clumsy weapon so frequently in the hands of dry-fly men in the +recent past. This is indeed a notable instance of the superiority of the +_suaviter in modo_ over the _fortiter in re_. + + + OF THE LIGHT ROD ON CHALK STREAMS. + +In the catalog (I quote the word in the American spelling) of the house +of William Mills and Son of New York there is a portrait of Mr. Humphrey +Priddis (whose signature “Dabchick” at the foot of Itchen reports is +familiar to all readers of the _Field_) holding up a two and one-eighth +pound trout which he had just killed on a two and one-eighth ounce +Leonard rod, the property of young Mr. Mills, a son of that house. I was +down on the Itchen the afternoon on which that feat was done. I saw the +rod, the fish, and the captor, and the place was pointed out to me. The +water was full of dense masses of waving weeds, and in accomplishing the +capture of such a fish—a large one for the water—on such a rod there is +no doubt that the angler executed a feat of which he had every right to +be proud. He declared himself amazed at the power of the rod, and that +he could throw three-and-twenty yards with it. + +Young Mr. Mills was fishing with a nine-foot rod weighing five ounces, a +delightful tool capable of casting a heavy tapered Halford line with +wonderful command. I had the privilege of trying it, and I promptly +acquired its duplicate, in addition to the ten-footer of the same make +which I already possessed and had used the previous season. + +I am not going to reargue here the long controversy of light rod +_versus_ the old-style ounce-to-the-foot weapon. The light rod has won +its place, and has come to stay. Those who have tried it fairly are +convinced that it will answer all necessary calls for casting, that it +is fully equal to butting and killing large trout, and that it adds a +daintiness to the art of fly fishing which the old-time anglers of the +heavy rod were hardly conscious it lacked. But I do want to press three +points in its favour beyond those enumerated: (1) It casts a delightful +_short_ line, and I confess to fishing consistently with the shortest +line I dare use, often with most of that in the country; (2) it can be +fished steadily all day, wet or dry, without tiring the hand—what a +change from those terrible wrist-breaking, hand-paralyzing, +blister-producing flails of the eighties and nineties! and (3) it +enables one to play light with unequalled sensitiveness. When I was a +boy at Winchester, old John Hammond had the length commonly known +nowadays as Chalkley’s, and I well remember the rods which old John used +to turn out for fishing the Itchen. They were soft and floppy to an +extent which would nowadays lead to their immediate rejection; but I +have seen the maker with one of them steer a good fish, hooked under the +opposite bank, by sheer handling, over dense weed, into the waiting +landing-net. And remembering this, and remembering how a fish which goes +to weed can, if lightly handled from the first, be forced, by play on +his idiosyncrasy, to beat himself free and up to the surface, I am +inclined to think that the modern angler is far too much inclined to use +force in handling a hooked fish, and that a rod which achieves—as the +light split canes of the highest class do—a combination of steely +quickness and casting power with something of the sensitive delicacy of +the wood rods of old John Hammond is the equipment to have in a tussle +with a big fish on fine tackle. + +To kill a brace of trout one of over four pounds and the other three +pounds six ounces on x x x gut in deep weedy and snag-infested water +between two bushes which I could touch with either hand, and which +prevented movement up or down stream, is a feat which I am sure my +old-time heavy rods could have done no better than did my six-ounce +ten-footer in 1909. Force was no good in such a place, and force was +never used until each trout had been sufficiently bewildered and +fatigued by beating in vain against the nothing which restrained him to +be kept more or less under the rod’s point till ready for the net. + + + OF WET-FLY CASTING. + +The use of rods which carry a heavy reel-line is so general on chalk +streams that probably the easy drying of the fly and cast is taken as a +matter of course, and it is little recognized how much is due to the +weight of the line driving the fly rapidly through the air. If the +angler were devoting himself to wet-fly fishing on a rough river, he +would avoid such a casting line, and if he means to fish a chalk stream +wet-fly only, he would do the same. But he would need to be able to +propel his fly and line upstream against the wind, and to cast a fairly +long line not infrequently, so that a line with more weight in it than +would be required for a rough river would be essential on a chalk +stream. But if, as is the wiser course, the angler proposes to fish +either wet or dry, as occasion demands, his equipment must be still more +of a compromise. He must use a rod which will carry a line that will dry +the fly with sufficient speed, but preferably not a line of the heaviest +class; and he must trust to the make of his flies, and to the soaking +they get through trailing in the water before the cast, to get them to +go under on lighting. The knack can be acquired without difficulty, but +if the dry-fly habit has become inveterate he will need to be +continually watching himself when he desires to fish wet. + +The line should be flicked as little as possible, and the angler should +try (generally speaking, but not always—see chapter on Nerves) to float +the gut while letting the fly go under. Then he secures the double +advantage of not lining his trout and of getting an indication from the +movement of the gut should the fly be taken without his otherwise +detecting it. The fly, being once delivered, may be allowed to come down +with the stream precisely like a dry fly except for its being under +water; but it can be recovered sooner and with less disturbance of the +surface, because the fly is drawn under and not along the top of the +water. The withdrawal should, however, be as gentle as possible, in +order to retain as much moisture as can be in the fly to sink it at the +next cast. If there be enough wind to raise waves, or even a strong +ruffle, this is of less consequence, as the make of the fly should be +such that it can only float, if at all, while quite dry on perfectly +smooth water. It is in general no use to put up the ordinary dry flies +to fish wet. + + + + + CHAPTER X + FRANKLY IRRELEVANT + + + A DRY-FLY MEMORY. + +In the Test Valley a good many years ago the coarse herbage lay drying +in the water-meadows in the heavy swathes in which it had fallen to the +scythe, but all along the boggy edges of the streams and carriers a tall +screen had been left standing shoulder-high, concealing the angler from +the rising fish, but compelling him, unfortunately, to stand and to fish +overhand instead of keeping low and switching a horizontal line to his +quarry. During the afternoon a chilly wind from the north-west had +supervened upon the blazing heat that for a week past had conjured such +alluring visions of the evening rise to end each July day. The sky was +overcast, and a troubled sun watched sulkily from the far side of the +valley, through dun rifts in the clouds, the approach of two rods to the +river-side. It was almost too early to begin. Scarce a fly was in the +air, and only one sign of any promise gave any hint of possible +success—the horses in the meadow opposite, driven to madness by the +Hampshire flies, were charging and careering wildly about their pasture, +heels half the time in air. + +Just a cast above the bottom boundary was a run which promised a moving +fish when the trout began to move, and half an hour’s wait in these +exquisite meadows was time well spent, if only in observing the splendid +profusion of life in this wonderful valley. The tender bloom of the +meadowsweet was at its most perfect, great wild purple orchids put up +among the boggy tussocks, while the lush richness of the water-side +herbage baffled description. From some meadow near came the “crek, crek” +of the landrail—less common, alas! than of old—the note of the snipe, +the wailing cry of the pewit, the “coo” of the turtle-dove, were +punctuated with the querulous gutturals of the moorhen, shyly under +cover in the sedges. Presently a small pale olive rose from the surface +and came drifting down the wind, then another and another, escaping +their water-enemies below only, too often, to be snapped up by the +screeching swifts that found them out too soon. Then, in the very neck +of the run, a fish put up, and the serious business of the evening +began. + +The fly on the cast was a Tup’s Indispensable, then the latest invention +of an ingenious West-Country angler, and, when the red spinner is up, a +very killing fly, but the fish, continuing to feed, would none of him. +Nor was the Red Quill to his liking, but the first cast of a Ginger +Quill on No. 00, covering him correctly, brought him up, and he +fastened. For a second he hesitated, then ripped the line from the +shrieking reel in an upward rush, leapt into the air, and was off. + +By this time the sun’s lower limb was resting on the opposite hill, and +the wind should have dropped dead. But still it came with a certain bite +of chill down the valley from the northward. Yet, in spite of cold, the +long, fleshy forest fly vied with the mosquito in assaults upon the +unprotected portions of the angler, and moths and sedges began to creep +out and flit from flower to flower. Two other fish putting up in the +next hundred yards were missed, and a small one was landed and returned. +Then, as dusk drew on, the fly was changed for a large Orange Quill on a +No. 2 hook. + +A good fish was rising steadily, though not rapidly, in the next bend, +but the Orange Quill, offered from perhaps too short a range, set him +down with great suddenness. A shy fish! So was the next found rising, +for he did not wait even the preliminary wave of the rod to cease from +his impetuous and greedy feeding. Perhaps the necessary wading through +the boggy margin to get near enough to the water for an effective cast +sent over him a wave that put him down. + +The next hundred yards provided no opportunity for the angler, but at +the end of them the sedgy screen ceased suddenly, and it was possible to +approach the shy quarry with a horizontal cast. Over a bank of weed +trailing near the surface an under-water movement seemed to indicate a +fish of some sort. The fly, an Orange Sedge on a No. 2 hook, dropped +lightly on the right spot, with a line behind it slack enough to let it +pass well over the fish before the inevitable drag set in. Up came a big +black neb. Instinctively the line tightened, but the fish was already +hard in the weed, and nothing could coax or force him out. Ten precious +minutes wasted, at a time when minutes were priceless, in vain attempts +to persuade him, before the inevitable break was effected and a new fly +tied on. + +A few yards farther on a snag divided the current, and a foot above it a +good fish was taking merrily every fly that covered him. He was not +proof against the Orange Sedge, and in a moment he was being led +flapping down on the farther side of the snag. Nothing seemed to +intervene between him and the landing-net, when suddenly the rod +straightened and he was gone. A feel at the hook in the growing dark +proved it to have broken at the bend. With difficulty another was +mounted, but by this the rise had ceased, and naught was left for the +angler but to feel his boggy way back through the eerie meadows to his +starting-point, and thence to the village—disappointed to a certain +extent, but with the disappointment more than tempered by the amazing +charm of this valley of valleys. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + ETHICS OF THE WET FLY + + +In dealing with this subject, I am conscious that I start with a weight +of opinion against me among the fishermen of chalk streams. I have known +some of them say in a shocked tone, “But that is wet-fly!” as if it were +some high crime and misdemeanour to use a wet fly upon a chalk stream. +To make my peace with such I want to argue this question out, and test +and see what it is about the wet fly which has brought such discredit +upon it among the best sportsmen in the world. + +It is axiomatic with many that it is unsuccessful upon chalk streams. +That is not my opinion, but in itself it is not an objection. If it were +unfairly successful it would be another story. The object of fly +fishing, whether wet or dry, is the catching of trout, not anyhow, but +by means refined, clean, delicate, artistic, and sportsmanlike in the +sense that they are fair to the quarry and fair to the brother angler. +There can be no doubt that the dry fly honestly fulfils all these +conditions. Let us see where the wet fly fails. + +It is said the wet-fly man’s game is a duffer’s game, which needs +neither knowledge nor any skill beyond enough to cast a long line +downstream or across and down; that it leads to a raking of the water, +often with two or three flies; that it leads to the pricking and scaring +of many fish, to the catching of many undersized trout, and to the undue +disturbance of long stretches of water, to the detriment of the nerves +of the fish and the sport of other anglers. All this I am quite willing +to accept and to eliminate from the legitimate all wet-fly fishing which +could come under this description. + +What is left to the wet-fly angler? I venture to say a mighty pretty, +delicate, and delightful art which resembles dry-fly fishing in that the +fly is cast upstream or across, to individual fish, or to places where +it is reasonable to expect that a fish of suitable proportions may be +found, and differs from dry-fly fishing only in the amount of material +used in the dressing of the fly, in the force with which that fly is +cast, and in the extreme subtlety of the indications frequently +attending the taking of the fly by the fish, compared to which there is +a painful obviousness in the taking of the dry fly. Add to this that it +provides means for the circumventing of bulgers and feeders on larvæ, +that it furnishes sport on those numerous occasions when trout are in +position and probably feeding under water without ever breaking the +surface, and generally widens the opportunities of sport for the man who +cannot be always on the spot to seize the best opportunities afforded by +a rise of trout to the floating fly. + +Is this method open to any of the objections attending the downstream +raking we concur in condemning? Is it a duffer’s game? Is it easier than +dry-fly fishing? Try and see. Does it lead to the pricking and scaring +of many fish which follow a dragging fly? No. Does it unduly disturb +long stretches of water to the detriment of the brother angler? Why, it +is as easy to spend an afternoon on a hundred yards as it is in the +purest cult of the dry fly. + +If the trout are feeding, I for one fail to see why they may +legitimately be fished for if they are taking a small proportion of +their food on the surface, but not if they are taking all, or +practically all, of it underneath. There is a sentence from Francis +Francis quoted with approval by Mr. F. M. Halford, which runs as +follows: + +“The judicious and perfect application of dry, wet, and mid-water fly +fishing stamps the finished fly-fisher with the hall-mark of +efficiency.” + +Nothing could be more just if one reads it with reference to all +streams, whether chalk streams or otherwise; but to read it +distributively so that only the dry fly may be used on chalk streams, +and only the wet fly on other streams, seems an unnecessary renunciation +of opportunity; while to read it as meaning that only the dry fly may be +used on chalk streams, while wet or dry fly may be legitimately used on +others, carries its own condemnation in logic. + +Mr. F. M. Halford, with every desire to be absolutely fair, has, I +think, in Chapter II. of “Dry-Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice,” done +more than any other man to discredit the wet fly on chalk streams, by +the implications, first, that the principle of the dry-fly method—viz., +the casting of the fly to a feeding fish in position—is not applicable +to the wet-fly method, and, secondly, that on the stillest days, with +the hottest sun and the clearest water, the wet fly is utterly hopeless. +On both these points I respectfully join issue with him. + +On all that his book contains on the positive side about the dry fly I +am in practical agreement. But if the reader considers the rods, the +lines, and the flies, that Mr. Halford recommends, he will see that they +are utterly unsuited to wet-fly fishing, and it would not be surprising +that no success attends them when used for wet-fly work. But if I am +right—and I am—in asserting that, given reasonably suitable gear, the +wet fly _may_ be cast upstream in chalk streams to a feeding fish in +position (whether surface feeding or not is, I submit, irrelevant), and +that on its day—and there are many such in the season—it will kill fish +alike in the hottest, brightest, and stillest weather, and on days and +in places and conditions where the dry fly is hopeless, and also in the +roughest of weather, then I may claim that it is an art worthy to stand +beside the art of the dry fly as a supplementary resource of the angler +that is at once fair, sportsmanlike, and capable of adding immensely to +his enjoyment, his sport, and his opportunities for using the highest +skill, not inferior in any sense (except in the matter of the avoidance +of drag) to that exercised by the dry-fly expert. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + APOLOGIA + + +Having read through the foregoing pages, I am (indeed, I could hardly +fail to be) conscious that I have written dogmatically, that I have used +the first person singular with some freedom—more freedom than I had +supposed. But I am not going to change it. What I had to say, stretched +over a period of years, has been too strong for me. I wanted to +elaborate a system, and all I have done is to tell my personal +experiences in search of a system. If I have written positively, I would +not have it supposed that I claim to be a master of angling, or that I +do not incur by the water-side my full share—perhaps more than my full +share—of mistakes, tangles, bungles, disasters. But, for all that, I +claim to be entitled to speak positively of the things which I have +tried and tested for myself and know of my own knowledge. No man can +really know either these same things or any other things by reading them +in a book or by accepting them upon any authority, whether it be that of +Mr. F. M. Halford or another. + +Nothing presents itself to any two minds in an identical light. We all +see the multicoloured facets of truth from a different angle. No +experience is the same to two diverse idiosyncrasies, and the only help +which the writing of a book of this kind can be to others is, not in the +laying down of rules, not in the preaching or advocating of systems, not +in teaching that which the writer has beaten out by his own experience, +but in hints which start or help trains of observation or inquiry in the +reader’s mind, so as to stimulate him to work out, and prove, by +personal thought and experiment, to make his own, the conclusions which +his own personality is capable of drawing from the test. + +In this way only is progress possible. In this, and in doing something +to assure that, in the new learning and in the new systems which come +along, that which is of value in the systems of the past shall not be +forgotten, but shall be transmuted to the uses of the present and the +future, is all the justification I can plead for the foregoing pages. + +In giving records of my own experience by the water-side rather than in +laying down a system, I am not asking others to do as I do because I say +it, or to accept anything from me. I would have no weight allowed by any +man to tradition or authority until it is proved by himself; no man’s +words accepted as final because they are his; everything questioned, +tested, and brought to the dock of practical experience. If I have +ventured, indirectly, to preach at all, the sum of my preaching is not a +system, a method, but an attitude of mind—the importance of being +earnest, the power of faith, the observant eye, the unfettered judgment, +independence of tradition, and, above all, the inquiring mind. + +With these words I commit my pages to the judgment or kindness of my +brother anglers with a cordial + + “TIGHT LINES.” + + + EXPLICIT. + + + BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76776 *** |