270 FLY-FISHING. 



He was on a previous occasion ruled out of a con- 

 test because the judges could not see where his flies 

 ahghted. He is especially careful to maintain the 

 true taper of line, casting-line, and flies, and would 

 scout the idea of using a cast with its largest fly at 

 the stretcher. This is as gross a heresy as putting 

 a shot in the fly-hook, which, while it may tend to 

 break the rod, instead of increasing will diminish the 

 distance reached. 



The author of the w^ork referred to, although 

 doubtless a hearty participant in the angler's plea- 

 sures, and fond of the free life in the wild woods by 

 the side of the secluded stream, shows, by his pre- 

 ference for common flies and coarse tackle, that he 

 does not appreciate the higher development of his 

 art in its purity ; content rather to fill his basket with 

 a stout hackle from the well-stocked brook of the 

 rarely visited forest, than to tempt the dainty trout 

 with finer imitations from the well-fished pond of 

 the cultivated country. }^ot only are large flies, 

 especially at the stretcher, difficult to cast, but the 

 hackles which he especially recommends are, from 

 the resistance to the air offered by their numerous 

 bristles, by far the most difficult. It is almost im- 

 possible with a light rod to cast a large hackle deli- 

 cately to a distance ; and when three are used, it is 

 entirely so. In clear pools such an apparition 

 would frighten the trout from their "feed" for 

 a week. But in a boisterous, roaring, foaming 

 mountain cataract, where the fish cannot see the 

 fisherman at all, and find difficulty in seeing 



