BAITING WITH THE LITE FLY. 123 



sheltered fish will be by the cunning use of a 

 living insect. 



The first thing you have to learn is the best 

 way to insert your hook in the insect, so as to 

 injure it and impede its natural motions as slightly 

 as possible. There must be no roughness em- 

 ployed in the operation. The insect must be 

 handled tenderly, and the hook inserted so as not 

 to puncture any mortal part of your frail bait. If 

 you use but one fly, insert the hook under one of 

 its wings, bringing it out between them at the 

 back. If you use two flies, carry the hook through 

 the upper part of the corset between both wings 

 of one fly ; and then, taking another with its head 

 reversed, let the hook enter under one of its wings, 

 and come out at its back. This double head-to- 

 tail bait is a very good one. If you are fishing 

 in open water, with a breeze blowing, your winch- 

 line must be of floss-silk, and your foot-line of 

 about a yard of very fine gut, or of a couple 

 of long links of horsehair. Without casting, and 

 by keeping the breeze to your back, holding up 

 your rod and letting out your blow-line, you can 

 easily manage to make the wind carry it to the 

 spots where you see fish rising. When you dip 

 beneath bushes, your ordinary silk and hair winch- 

 line will do, with a foot-line of gut. By twirling 

 in your hand your rod, twist as much line about 

 its top-pieces as you want ; and then, inserting its 



