STEWART AND THE UPSTREAM SCHOOL. 107 



the many crotchety and fanciful rules laid down 

 by angling writers. Of these the most pre- 

 posterous is that of upstream fishing. It is 

 almost impossible for a trout to seize a fly in 

 this position, and if he does you can neither 

 hook nor hold him. Fitzgibbon who wrote his 

 Handbook of Angling in 1847 under the 

 pseudonym Ephemera tells you to use both 

 methods, but to fish upstream first. Therefore 

 four, Davy, Penn, Younger and Fitzgibbon are 

 upstream, and two, Stoddart and Ronalds, not 

 counting Blakey, are downstream. The whole 

 result of an enquiry over two and a half 

 centuries shows a numerical majority for fish- 

 ing downstream, but also a steady increase in 

 the upstream witnesses : none in the first 

 period, two in the second and four in the third, 

 when the balance swings finally over to up- 

 stream before Stewart appears on the scene. 

 Also the habit of fishing upstream began earlier 

 and was more generally used than is commonly 

 supposed, and it is unlikely that there was any 

 period from Walton's time to now when it was 

 not practised. I believe, though it cannot be 

 proved, that it depended on locality, and that 

 Scotland and the south of England fished down, 

 the north of England up. 



Stewart sets out to prove that fly fishermen 

 can get almost if not quite as good sport in 

 clear water as in coloured, if only they will 

 consent to fish upstream. Ninety-nine out of 

 a hundred, he says, fish down, and most books 



