28 STRIKING AND HOOKING A FISH. 



for dead flies. When you keep your last dropper 

 on the surface of the water, impart to it the 

 slightest skipping motion, by a tremulous wrist- 

 shake of the rod, and the flies that are just under 

 water will receive the most natural motion you 

 can give them. Never drag your flies straight 

 across the water towards you, and never, unless 

 they be salmon flies, work them against the 

 current. A small trout may, perchance, rise at 

 them when so worked, but seldom or never a 

 large one. 



STRIKING AND HOOKING A FISH. In cricket 

 there are fast and slow bowlers, which is a proof 

 that one way is thought as good, if not better than 

 another. In striking a fish there are fast and slow 

 strikers, each of them, of course, maintaining the 

 superiority of his own method. Well, if there 

 were no difference of opinion, sad would be the 

 monotony of life, the old proverb, ' Quot homines, 

 tot sententieej having become obsolete. The truth 

 is, there are as many fish missed by striking too 

 rapidly, as by striking too slowly, and a fault 

 either way is bad. I think, however, that he 

 who strikes too quickly labours under a greater 

 disadvantage than he who strikes too slowly. 

 Striking too strongly is a shocking fault, and, as 

 it is generally joined with the defect of striking 

 too quickly, double mischief ensues. You either 

 miss your fish, or whip it out of the water awk- 



