The Fishing of Waters with the Wet Fly 49 



line, across some one of the many boulders 

 which often strew the stream, in such a 

 piece of broken water as I am thinking of 

 now, in the wild Cabrach of the Deveron, 

 Aberdeenshire. 



The man who believes in, and sticks 

 to, his " fine and far off"; when fishing 

 any rapid Scottish water up stream must 

 necessarily get his reel-line drowned fre- 

 quently, and when this happens, he loses 

 that touch, that direct control, which to 

 my mind is so all- import ant ; and with the 

 result, that, many a good trout which he 

 ought to basket, goes to add to the num- 

 bers of the knowing ones, which are hook- 

 shy from experiences like these. Broken 

 water, which is shallow, and devoid of these 

 deep little pits, where the trout can rest, is 

 useless to the fly-fisher. 



A short line enables the man who is 

 tackling these broken bits of water to cast 

 frequently, and to be in touch with a rising 

 trout instantly. The learner may ask, what 

 sort of man would I back as an all-round 

 wet-fly fisher on any typical Scottish water ? 

 What, if I put first, the man who knows 

 every stone in the river ? All other things 

 being equal, he has the advantage, surely, 

 over any stranger to the district. Wet-fly 



