DEFENCE OF UP-STREAM ANGLING 29 



than arc caught i.e. if he fishes in low, dear 

 water, where the up-stream angler makes his 

 baskets. On a half-flooded or amber water 

 it may be well to fish across the stream, 

 standing, however, well back from the verge, 

 and then allow your three flies or four 

 are permissible at such times to drift 

 down a few yards or feet, and then cast 

 again ; and often good baskets are thus 

 made, but it is not good enough in a low, 

 thin water. 'Fine and far off' seems to us 

 an exploded phantasy, so far at least as 

 Scottish streams are spoken of. We write 

 of Scottish sport. Possibly in the chalk 

 streams of Hampshire, with the dry or float- 

 ing fly, ' fine and far off' is still a necessity. 

 In this style of angling we have, we confess, 

 only served a novitiate. We would for 

 Scottish sport substitute the advice, 'In 

 water clear, cast fine and near/ up-stream, or 

 up and across, unless occasionally when it is 

 desirable to reach a rising fish, across, or 

 under the opposite bank, or properly to hang 

 a fly in a far-off eddy or swirl by changing 

 your position. 



And now a few words about ' striking one's 



