34 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



angle to hym wyth a dubbyd hooke, acordynge 

 to the moneth/ The resemblance, however, must 

 not be pressed too far. To do so would be to 

 make the mistake of reading modern ideas into 

 the loose language of an old writer. And caution 

 is particularly necessary owing to the fact that 

 the Treatise does not say how the fisherman 

 used his fly. We are told nothing of the third 

 factor, presentation. Casting the fly is not 

 mentioned until Lawson wrote, a century and 

 a quarter later. The fly must have been cast, 

 but how we know not. It can only have been 

 cast down wind or in a calm, for the rod and 

 line used could not have cast up wind. The 

 rest is guess work. Whether the fly was thrown 

 up or down stream, whether it was allowed to 

 float with the current or was drawn across or 

 against it, whether it was kept near the surface 

 or allowed to sink, we are not told. But it is 

 not a very extravagant guess to assume that the 

 usual practice was to fish down stream and to 

 draw the fly, keeping it near the top of the 

 water. It is pretty clear, too, that a windy, or 

 at least a breezy, day was chosen, and a cloudy 

 day was thought best; a dark day with either 

 a soft wind or with no wind at all is considered 

 the best of any. These indications point to an 

 art in its infancy, but on the other hand it is 

 not too much to say that the advanced know- 

 ledge of fishing lore which the Treatise shows 

 must have carried with it an equal degree of 

 skill in the application of that knowledge to the 



