30 THE CKITICAL MOMENT. 



exception, and not by rule. The fly-fisher of 

 sharp eye and quick hand will often have an 

 advantage over the purblind and the too slow. 

 Dimness of vision and obtuseness of touch mar 

 frequently the benefits of experience, and the 

 young sharp eye and lively hand will successfully 

 compete with the skill of old practitioners in 

 whom the two attributes last mentioned are fading 

 away. 



On this part of our subject, I find, on the whole, 

 some excellent advice' and remarks in Elaine's 

 6 Encyclopaedia of Eural Sports,' * 2nd edit., 

 p. 1178. He says, * Striking the fish is to the full 

 as important a part of the rod and line manage- 

 ment as any. Many strike too slowly, many too 

 quickly, and a correct few strike at the critical 

 moment. The first lose their object, the second 

 often lose both the object and their bait, while the 

 third secure all. When a fish seizes the natural 

 fly, his jaws find no resistance; he consequently 

 keeps them closed until deglutition follows ; and 

 thus it is that in natural fly-fishing, it is not found 

 so necessary to be instantaneous in striking ; but 

 with the artificial fly, the instant the fish seizes it, 

 he is apt to find the deception, either by its want 

 of taste, or by feeling the point of the hook, or by 

 discovering the unyielding nature of the material 



* Published by Messrs. Longman and Co., Paternoster Bow, 

 2nd edit. 1852. 



