166 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



ence from the baser sentiments of humanity ; but I have actu- 

 ally seen a man so self-willed as to fish all day without a rise, 

 " because," as he said, " he was determined to bring the trout 

 to his terms." 



All kinds of angling call for the exercise of patience ; but 

 fly-fishing requires the gift of genius. Do not fish with too 

 long a cast. In fishing a creek up stream, thirty to forty-five 

 feet are quite suificient. In striking, let it be with sufficient 

 force to fasten the hook in his jaw; but play your fish most 

 gingerly and even tenderly, but not so as to give him slack 

 line, or he will disgorge the hook. One of the principal 

 causes of losing large fish is the being in too great a hurry 

 to land them. If the hook is well fastened, the more deli- 

 cately your fish is played the better; for snubbing a fish 

 hard at all points wears an orifice in its jaw from which the 

 hook falls by the mere turning of the fish. It is true that the 

 trout has a good mouth to hold a hook, but the hook must 

 first be well fastened to hold, and then the orifice made in 

 hooking should not be worn larger in playing, if possible to 

 avoid it. 



SECTION THIRD. 



KNOTS, LOOPS, AND DROPS. 



While anglers should let every trade live, and buy their 

 tackle in preference to making it, yet with the make of cer- 

 tain parts of tackle every amateur should be familiar. Of 

 course he should know how to tie on a hook, and how to make 

 a loop whose equal bearings would prevent it from chafing 

 or breaking at the loop-knot. 



No. 1. Bending on, or tying on a hook. The hook should be 

 tied on stained silk- worm gut, round, clear, and strong ; for 

 in playing a fish the tackle generally parts near the hook. 

 Use scarlet silk, well waxed with a drab wax made from 

 tar, like shoemaker's wax, only light-colored. From about 

 half an inch below the end of the shank, make half a dozen 

 turns with the silk to the end of the shank, and place an 



