THE WELSH DEE 



too strong, and extra tempting patches of surface come 

 within reach of your flies, the skipper, by violent 

 agitation of his paddle and some straining of body 

 and legs, will hold you in position against the stream 

 for a few fleeting moments. The aim of the coraclist 

 is to run down sideways, so that the angler is casting 

 crosswise with the streams while the pilot checks the pace 

 at which we should naturally run. It may be one bank 

 you are facing, it may be the other, or again the centre 

 of the river for a short space, where the fashion of the 

 rocks and ledges attract the angler's accustomed eye. 



Till you get the right sense of proportion into your 

 head, the wavering trail of the coracle seems strewn 

 with vain regrets. All the time you are flitting over 

 good water which it seems you can merely scratch, 

 work as hard as you may and fish as fast as you can. 

 There are sometimes half a dozen spots within reach 

 at once, upon any of which under normal conditions 

 you would cast a careful and expectant fly. But as 

 it is, only one can be sampled, and that too both 

 quickly and with some scope for judgment. It is a 

 good test assuredly of the wet-fly fisherman's instinct 

 for the hidden lair of a trout, of the * smittle ' spots, 

 as they would say in Cumberland. Yet it is well to 

 cast from a coracle as fast and as frequently as you 

 can in reason. For it is not only that you thus cover 

 a larger proportion of the tempting water, but much 

 more often than not a trout takes a fly within two 

 or three seconds of its lighting on the water. It is 

 difficult to remember 'at first that though you are 

 leaving five out of the six accessible casts untested, 

 you are fishing say eight miles instead of one, which 



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