WITH TROUT FISHING. 157 



of those birds where a slow poking warksman of the old school 

 can only fire his gun a few times. 



" Having been thus far so rude as to criticise your work on the 

 subject of shooting, allow me to make the amende honorable by 

 giving you a useful hint on trout Jishing ; viz. For small rivers 

 the yellow dun, as made by Chevalier, is, in the long run, worth 

 all the other flies put together j and I can safely assert, that my 

 sport has never been so good as when fishing through the whole 

 season with this fly at the end, and a small red palmer for a 

 bob*. A great deal, however, depends on throwing well, so that 

 the gut should drop on the water before any part of the line, 

 which is seldom the case when our soi-disant anglers fish with 

 their whole bodies : and, instead of throwing gracefully from the 

 wrist, which ought to be done equally well with either the left or 

 the right hand, they labour like a person threshing, and keep 

 bowing like a candidate to his constituents at an election. What 

 is the consequence of thus flogging the water? they frighten 

 away the large fish, and catch only the small ones. 



" With many apologies for the scarcely legible manner in 

 which the greatest haste, and an accumulation of unanswered 

 letters oblige me to write, 



" I have the honour to remain, 



" Sir, 

 " Your obedient humble servant, 



" P. HAWKER, 



" P. S. One who can throw a fly well across the wind has a 

 great advantage in catching the large fish, as in this case the line, 

 before it falls, becomes for a moment suspended over the water, 

 and therefore drops lighter than when thrown directly with the 

 wind." 



* It would be ridiculous to lay down this as a rule for every 

 county. I only speak of the small rivers that I happen to have 

 fished for many years, in Hampshire and part of Dorsetshire, 

 concerning which I can therefore speak from experience. 



