30 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



the line floats down past the angler. But the trout 

 usually rises to the fly the moment it falls, and it is 

 undesirable to let the line float for more than three or 

 four yards, each cast being made a yard or two above 

 the preceding one. The eye of the experienced angler 

 at once detects the points of each stream and pool, and 

 he does not waste time by casting in water where 

 trout do not ordinarily feed, but having brought his 

 fly in behind every stone, below every bush, and past 

 every tuft of grass, he passes on to other favourable 

 places. Fly-fishing, indeed, or any kind of fishing — 

 if the angler makes up his mind to fill his pannier — is 

 hard work. What his hand findeth to do, he must 

 do with his might, confident that skill and diligence 

 will meet their reward. Unless a stream is remark- 

 ably well stocked with trouts, and singularily adapted 

 for the catching of them, the angler in a full day's 

 fishing ought to pass over from four to seven miles of 

 water. It is waste of time to fish all the water — it 

 is folly to repeat casts, except where there is some 

 special temptation — and, when the take is not on, 

 there are but a few trouts here and there, stationed 

 where the angler's eye ought readily to direct him, 

 that are feeding. When the take is on — that is, when 

 of a sudden the water begins to "bell" with noses 

 poked up to catch the drowning flies that suddenly 

 come down the stream in myriads — the angler must 

 redouble his exertions; and as he ought to get a rise at 

 almost every cast, if he is in a proper place, he may 

 remain stationary as long as the trout continue to 

 seize his flies. Such golden minutes are not to be 

 thrown away, for " the take " seldom lasts long. It 



