266 SALMON AND TROUT. 



so well and doubtless fished so skilfully, to fish ' fine and far 

 off ' still gives the angler his best chance of success, and there 

 are few waters fairly worth fishing where it may not be practised 

 with advantage. 



But at the outset of remarks which are nothing if not prac- 

 tical, I ought to observe that even in following Cotton's admir- 

 able rule there may be mistake or excess. The rule is, in fact, 

 only one method of carrying out the great principle which 

 underlies all success in fly fishing. Unless under exceptional 

 conditions of weather, water or both, Piscator must above all 

 things keep out of sight ; must not allow Piscis to catch a 

 glimpse of himself, his rod or the shadow of either ; must show 

 him, in fact, nothing but the fly which is to ' lure him to his 

 own undoing.' This principle, it may be said, is too obvious to 

 be worth stating. Yet if generally admitted it is very insuffi- 

 ciently acted upon. Not long since I was chatting with a friend 

 near Wansford Mill, on the well-known * Driffield Beck.' He 

 had been trying the lower water whilst I had fished down stream 

 to meet him. The day was bright with little breeze, but the 

 fish were feeding, and my brother angler's creel hung heavy at 

 his back, while the lad who carried mine seemed nowise sorry 

 to rest it on the bank. A third angler appeared on the scene. 

 He was striding along close to the water's edge, down stream, 

 making from time to time a long cast with a two-handed rod 

 across the open beck. He really did not cast badly, though 

 his tackle seemed rather coarse and his fly was of a size strange 

 and alarming to Driffield trout of the present generation, what- 

 ever it might have been to their remote ancestry. But my 

 friend and I were well aware that as he moved, there was * fuga 

 et ingens solitudo ' in front of him ; that the fish were literally 

 scudding in shoals from his obtrusive presence. 



This was no doubt an extreme case, but the same error in 

 kind, though less in degree, is constantly committed even by 

 practised hands. I do not find crawling or crouching till 

 within four or five yards of a * shy ' stream quite as easy as I 

 did forty years ago, but I resort freely to each as my cast re- 



