MOVEMENT OF THE FLY. 395 



salmon fishing the more leisurely and quietly the fly is 

 moved through the water the better. It ought not to be 

 dragged along the surface nor violently jerked up and 

 down, but made to swim 6 inches or even more below 

 the surface with an even, graceful motion. 



I said that in fishing a pool the line should be cast not 

 straight across it, but diagonally down ; the reason for this 

 is that, particularly in pools where there is a heavy 

 stream, when the fly is thrown straight across, the cur- 

 rent catches the belly of the line and sweeps the fly over 

 half the pool so rapidly that fish cannot take it. Young 

 anglers often think that they have fished a pool thoroughly, 

 whereas, although they have cast it honestly enough, their 

 fly has been swept rapidly over perhaps the best of it. 

 The fly must dwell for a certain space of time, be it ever 

 so short, over the fish. With a long line, this can only 

 be effected by fishing down stream. As regards the 

 motion that is to be given to the fly, authorities differ 

 again. The Irish use a quick, jiggy motion, the Scotch 

 a slow, churning motion. My impression is that the former 

 is better for still water, the latter for rough streams. But, 

 indeed, in rapid water I have come to the conclusion that 

 the less motion there is the better, and that the more the 

 fly is sunk, and the longer it is allowed to dwell over 

 the lie of the fish, the better the chances of success. 

 Where fish are inclined to be sulky, however, the angler 

 must try different ways of fishing over them, both the 

 lively motion and the slow motion. 



There is one error the trout fisher almost invariably 

 falls into when he commences to angle for the nobler 

 fish, viz. he strikes. There is no such thing as striking 



