MODE OF STRIKING. 325 



rod that the barbed hook shall be buried securely and quickly, 

 or ere the fish has time to discover that the gaudy bait is an 

 unreal mockery, without substance or savour, consists in knowing 

 what is not, rather than what is to be done. 



Very certain it is that the fly must not be jerked or twitched 

 away quickly, as is done by ninety-nine hundredths of novices, 

 who thereby, instead of fixing the bait in, flirt it out of the 

 mouth of the Salmon, and probably prick him in doiug so; 

 rendering him thereby shy of again looking at the bait, and 

 teaching him a lesson, which he may not forget in many days. 



At two moments only, of the ordinary cast of a fly, is the fish 

 nearly sure to hook himself — that is, when it first alights on the 

 surface of the stream, and when it is in the very act of being 

 withdrawn from it, for the purpose of making a fresh throw — for 

 at these two moments only is it necessary at the end of a taut 

 extended line. When a fish strikes boldly at either of these two 

 points of time, it is very sure to hook itself without any exer- 

 tion of the angler ; but if the line is in the slightest degree 

 curved or baggy, unless there is a certain almost indescribable 

 movement of the wrist, the fly will often be rejected, owing to 

 the discovery of its quality, and the fish will so escape scot-free. 



This striking I have seen variously described, but never, in 

 my opinion, comprehensibly. I consider that the great thing 

 in fly-fishing is to keep the line always as straight as possible, 

 never allowing any portion of it to float on the water, and to 

 have the fly never submerged, nor yet skipping, but trailed 

 evenly along the ripples, as if it were naturally floating down, at 

 the end of a straight extended line. By this method the chances 

 of striking your Salmon, without any eff'ort on your own part. 



