RENDERING A LONG CAST PERFECT. 47 



begin working, it is too far away to be followed, 

 even if seen. In making a long cast beyond and 

 over a salmon, just as your fly is alighting on the 

 water, lower a little the point of your rod, and 

 give two or three feet of line, if there be room, 

 beyond the fish, and your fly will be carried 

 further by that distance than if you lifted the rod 

 and tightened the line as the fly was coming into 

 descending contact with the water. Commence 

 working the fly gently ; and, if you have calcu- 

 lated rightly the position of the fish, you cannot 

 fail to introduce the fly to his notice favourably. 

 At any rate, by following what I have just here 

 recommended, you will be able to command a 

 greater extent of water, than by lifting the rod 

 simultaneously with the completion of the cast. 



Hooking a Salmon. — Striking at and hook- 

 ing a fish are nearly synonymous. To strike and 

 hook a fish requires self-possession, and very little 

 more ; that little is, not to attempt it too quickly 

 and too rudely. If you are fluttered at the rise 

 of a fish, you will either strike too soon or too 

 strongly, or not at all, like a fowler startled at 

 the noise made by a pheasant, flushed from a 

 hedge-row. My general rule is not to strike at a 

 salmon until I feel him — until I feel " a bite " 

 — if I may be allowed to apply to the royal sport 



