108 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



your human intelligence and to that of the trout to suppose 

 that you would not resort to that spot where the flies 

 were coming down most plentifully. Consider, then, where 

 that spot is likely to be and cast your flies accordingly. 

 Trout, like the eagles, will be gathered together where the 

 carcase is. 



If you consider the face of a stream when a " hatch out," 

 as We call it, of fly is on, you will soon see that, unless a strong 

 wind be blowing, the flies are apt to be carried into that 

 course of the water where it flows most rapidly. That is 

 a rule which holds good for all flotsam, living or inani- 

 mate, thus borne down the surface of a running water. 

 There the flies will be gathered, and there the fish will 

 await them. Down that same channel, then, you should 

 float your artificial flies — and hope for the best. It happens 

 less often that this fly-bearing current is seen to go down 

 the centre of the river than to flow along one or other of the 

 banks. On windy days the flies are nearly sure to be 

 carried or drifted towards the bank against which the wind 

 blows. Moreover, apart from the influences of either wind 

 or current, there is ever the chance of an insect dropping 

 off the bank's side. Each and all of these circumstances, 

 together with the fact that fish usually have their haunts, 

 when not on the active outlook for food, under the 

 banks, dispose the trout to take up their stations there ; 

 and I will now give you a " tip " which you may often 

 find of value in casting for these " under the bank " 

 trout. Remember that, however lightly you cast your 

 fraudulent little concoction of feather and barbed steel, 

 you will never get it to poise on the water as delicately as the 

 natural dun, with its hair-like legs. But in casting for fish 

 under the bank, if you use a yard or so more line than is 

 actually needed for putting your fly over them, and cast 

 against the bank under which they are lying, then the fly, 

 after hitting the bank, will fall on the water with a delicacy 

 which you hardly can impart to it otherwise. That is a 

 dodge for which you should be constantly on the look out for 

 putting into practice. I am writing all this on the pre- 

 sumption, for the moment, that you are on one of those that 

 we call the wet-fly rivers. On the dry-fly streams the trout 



