156 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



again, sometimes as many as four times, before he fastens. 

 It is necessary that the line be so straight that a slight touch 

 will be felt by the angler, and that a responsive jerk at the 

 top of the rod will be sure to fasten the fish. But if the line 

 is slack, and the trout happens to get hooked, he will be like- 

 ly to disgorge before the angler has time to strike. Do not 

 be in a hurry to lay out more line than you can cast straight 

 from the tip of your rod to your stretcher-fly. Some good 

 fly-fishers prefer to cast a short line, because it is so much 

 easier for them to hook their fish and play him. Especially 

 is this the case when trout are plenty. On Long Island they 

 are educated ; but even there do not strain your nerves and 

 muscles to make a wide cast. Experience is the only teach- 

 er who will confer the perfection of casting. 



So soon as the angler learns to lay out thirty feet of line 

 straight^ without a bend from the tip of his rod, he may count 

 himself a fly-fisher ; and as he continues to practice for im- 

 proving in the elegance of his casting, he will naturally ac- 

 quire the habit, so that fifty or sixty feet casts will be done 

 with perfect ease, grace, and precision. Over-hand and under 

 casts will be his next practice, in order to succeed in wading 

 a stream overhung with willows or alders, or margined with 

 large trees whose wide projecting branches warn the angler 

 to beware lest he cast too high. 



Many simple souls suppose angling an indolent pastime ; 

 and Johnson's plagiarism from a Greek author of " a stick 

 and a string, with a fool at one end and a worm at the oth- 

 er," helped to fix in the minds of the ignorant the impression 

 which the stolen aphorism was intended to convey. Such 

 vulgar witticisms may please the splenetic; they only dis- 

 gust liberal-minded men. 



A word more about the costume of our model angler. The 

 color of the dress should either be green, to blend with the 

 foliage, or gray, to harmonize with the shade of the rocks. 

 Wading boots, with rubbered silk extensions, are the lightest 

 and best, except, perhaps, the Scotch wading stockings, of 



