78 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



rule to guide you : but when fishing slow water 

 to cast across, let it sink, and draw it slowly 

 round, but do not make circles on the water. 

 But the general practice was to keep the fly on 

 the top of the water. 



The fisherman waded, but only sparingly. 

 He did not possess the hardihood of Scrope, 

 who tells you never to go into water deeper than 

 the fifth button of your waistcoat, and even 

 this is inadvisable for tender constitutions in 

 frosty weather. He advises those who are 

 delicate and wade in February when it freezes 

 very hard, to pull down their stockings and 

 examine their legs. Should they be black or 

 even purple it might perhaps be as well to get 

 on dry land, but if they are only rubicund you 

 need not worry. The seventeenth century was 

 not so stalwart. Wading, not deep, must have 

 been practised in large rivers, for in Tweed or 

 Eden or Wye you would not get many trout in 

 low water unless you waded. But it is rarely 

 mentioned at this time, nor can I recall any 

 print that depicts it. Wading boots were not 

 in general use till later, and wading trousers 

 or stockings not till later still. 



There were two schools of striking as there 

 always are, according as the writer is talking 

 of large fish or small. Large fish should not be 

 struck before they turn, for small ones you 

 cannot be too quick. The fish when hooked was 

 played with the rod, as in the time of the 

 Treatise, and if of any size was landed in a net, 



