TROUT FLY-FISHING IN AMERICA 



ingly long practice, that a successful method of applying 

 the principle can be fully acquired. 



To become a successful angler one must be patient to a 

 marked degree under many trying and disheartening cir- 

 cumstances, such as broken tackle, snarled leaders, 

 snapped-off flies, an overshot line, a leaky boat or canoe, 

 the mistakes of a guide or companion, a ducking, the loss 

 of a big fish, the utter indifference of the fish, and a thou- 

 sand and one other "ills that flesh is heir to." 



Next to having patience one must have, or acquire, a 

 phlegmatic temperament, because nervousness plays no 

 part in the art of fly-fishing, as no great amount of suc- 

 cess will ever fall to the lot of the nervous fisherman. 



For the beginner it may be well to state what consti- 

 tutes a nervous fisherman. He is the fisherman, who, hav- 

 ing had a rise and failing to strike and hook his fish, im- 

 mediately and hurriedly casts again, with the usual result 

 that he either gets his line or leader, or both, "hung up** 

 on the backward or forward cast, if he is fishing on a 

 stream, or he hammers the water with the line if he is fish- 

 ing from a boat or canoe on still water. In each case the 

 net result is no rise and no fish. 



Nerves are again shown by the stream fisherman, who, 

 having cast over a likely pool two, three or four times with- 

 out having a rise, starts for the next inviting pool to do the 

 same thing over again. 



Then again nerves come to the front when from a 

 boat or canoe the fisherman casts and gets a rise and fails 

 to hook his fish, but just pricks him with the point of the 



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