FLY- FISHING FOR TKOUT. 113 



not being able to fish narrow and woody streams. In 

 rivers which run through a bed scooped out by moun- 

 tain-torrents, two or three times as broad as the quantity 

 of water which they ordinarily supply, the fly-fisher has 

 plenty of elbow-room, and can use a long rod and line, 

 which require both hands, with very good effect; but in 

 smaller streams, such as those just described, there is no- 

 thing like a light single-handed rod, it gives you great 

 power over the water, and enables you, as it were, to pick 

 fish out of places that the double-handed artist must in- 

 variably pass by. 



To measure distances accurately with the eye is an 

 essential part of a fly-fisher's profession. This can only 

 be acquired by close attention and constant practice. No 

 written or verbal rules of direction can possibly teach it; 

 and yet every one may attain a high degree of excellence 

 in this respect, if he devote himself patiently to the sub- 

 ject; and one or two seasons' free range with the fly will 

 enable him to hit his point nearly to a hair's breadth in 

 every cast of his line. 



In the progress of the art of angling, many crotchety 

 and fanciful rules have been laid down with sufficient 

 dogmatism. Amongst these, that Avhich recommends 

 fishing up a stream instead of down it, still retains its ad- 

 vocates and defenders. We do not hesitate to say, nothing 

 can be more preposterous than this notion. If the angler 

 will observe attentively the manner in which flies lie on 

 the water, when the line is thrown up against the cur- 

 rent, he will see in an instant the almost impossibility of 

 the trout seizing the fly in such a position. But even if 

 he should take it, the power is lost to retain him ; for the 

 tightness and tenacity of the line are destroyed by the 

 fish rushing down stream, right into your face as it were. 



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