130 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



point of the rod so as to let the gut go slack when he jumps, 

 you are nearly sure to be broken if he falls back on it. If 

 you drop quickly enough, it is bad luck if you are broken, 

 but it is bad luck which sometimes does befall. If much of 

 the reel line is in the water the drop of the rod top does not 

 communicate slackness to the cast quickly enough ; the fish 

 may come on it when it is tolerably taut — result, disaster ! 



Thus far I have been talking to you, with a little digres- 

 sion by the way, of how best you may float your fly over the 

 head of the feeding fish. I wish to point out to you now 

 that there are occasions when this perfectly dry flotation 

 is not the best possible way of sending out your invitation 

 to him. I wrote a little above about trout taking flies in 

 a semi-submerged state. I say flies, though I am not sure 

 but what it is the rising nymphs that they are so taking. 

 Yet it is quite a different way from that mad under-water 

 rushing at nymphs in which they are called " bulgers." 

 At all events, they seem, though they break surface, to take 

 the food, whatever it be, just beneath the surface. Therefore 

 just beneath, rather than right on top, must surely be the 

 plane on which you should try to show them your artificial 

 fly. That being so, it appears as if the perfectly water- 

 proofed pattern was not quite the ideal. It is really better 

 that it should sink just a little. You are to cast it, be it 

 understood, exactly as when you wish it to float quite 

 surface-wise, only you wish it to sink, say, half an inch under 

 water by the time it gets to the fish. The flies which seem 

 to be taken best in this state of semi-submergence are the Tups 

 and the spiders, that at least is my experience. So I always 

 take out my spiders without any oiling. If I wish to float 

 them over a fish I can always put some oil on from the bottle 

 if I have it with me, or, at worst, you can fish the dry fly quite 

 well without any waterproofing at all, only on the condition 

 that you dry him longer in the air between casts. Of Tups 

 I generally take out some oiled and some without oil. One 

 merit of this fishing with the semi-submerged fly is that a 

 slight drag is not so apparent as when the fly is surface 

 floating, and another point in your favour is that if you 

 should strike, thinking that the trout has your fly, when it is 

 really a natural close to it that he has risen at, the strike will 



