TROUT FISHING 



' M ^ UT now I must come to the second way of Angling at 

 B_^^ the top : which is with an artificial fly . . . with 

 I ^ this you are to angle with a line longer by a yard 

 '^^~^^ and a half, or sometimes two yards, than your 

 rod. . . . For the length of your rod you are always to be 

 governed by the breadth of the river you shall choose to angle 

 at : and for a Trout river one of five or six yards is commonly 

 enough, and longer, though never so neatly and artificially 

 made it ought not to be, if you intend to fish at ease ; and if 

 otherwise where lies the sport ? . . . The length of your line 

 is a mighty advantage to the fishing at distance : and to fish 

 fine and far off is the first and principal rule for Trout- 

 angling. . . . 



' Now to have your whole line as it ought to be, two of the 

 first lengths nearest the hook should be of two hairs apiece : 

 the next three lengths above them of three ; the next three 

 above them of four : and so, of five and six and seven to the 

 very top : by which means your rod and tackle will in a manner 

 be taper from your very hand to your hook.' Thus far, Cotton. 



General Venables described the end to be sought in fashion- 

 ing rod and line in words that have never been bettered : 



' The slenderness I conceive principally serveth to make the 

 fly-rod long and light, easy to be managed with one hand, and 

 casteth the fly far, which are to me considerations chiefly to be 

 regarded in a fly-rod, for if you observe, the slender part of the 

 rod, if strained, shoots forth in length as if it were part of the 

 line, so that the whole stress and strength of the fish is borne 

 or sustained by the thicker part of the rod.' 



Such was the equipment of the trout fisherman in 



181 



