50 TROUT-FISHING IN BROOKS 



anyhow. Wherever possible, for reasons already 

 given, wet flies should be also cast upstream ; 

 still, greater latitude may be allowed in this 

 respect than in dry-fly fishing. There are many 

 places too many where casting upstream would 

 be out of the question, owing to obstacles. In 

 these, then, defy orthodoxy, and cast anyhow, so 

 that you get the flies in, and humour them down 

 with the current as far as you can safely. In 

 pulling them up, skip the dropper (if using two 

 flies) on the surface, and do this in letting them go 

 down also. 



I knew an old poacher in Cornwall who em- 

 ployed high art. At apparently impracticable 

 spots he would take the tail fly in his left hand, 

 and, letting go between boughs, contrive to dodge 

 it into currents ; then, raking out a little line by 

 jerking against the stream, down would go his two 

 flies, to be pulled about in various directions till 

 he had fished the place out. He showed me some 

 nice trout one day topped by one of about 

 10 oz. 



But apart from this sleight-of-hand work, there 

 are sure to be plenty of places where flies can be 

 fished, if not upstream, at least down, and there 

 are days even in summer when they will show good 

 sport. On flats of some width, or the broader 



