98 FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



though that was the usual and only proper way to fish 

 with the fly. Anxious as they all are to please their em- 

 ployer, experience has taught them that it is unadvisable 

 to make any comment whatever which may be* construed 

 into disparagement of his angling skill. Wisdom is the 

 child of experience, and no matter how great that of the 

 angler may have been elsewhere, there at least his guide 

 can instruct him to advantage ; for he has seen almost 

 every conceivable method of fly-fishing, and has heard 

 his comrades describe the very few which have not come 

 under his personal observation. The merits and demerits 

 of each have been appraised in his mind by the infallible 

 touchstone of actual trial, and if his advice can be had, 

 it cannot but prove valuable to any one. 



Though these recommendations are strictly followed, 

 and though the guide exerts himself to the utmost, still 

 as long as trout are capricious, so long will success, 

 though probable, be uncertain. 



Remember that only exceptional luck is chronicled in 

 fishing, and that as to failure therein a discreet silence 

 is ever in order. 



From some printed accounts of that region, it might 

 be inferred that an eight pounder occupied every super- 

 ficial yard of those waters, clamoring to be caught. This 

 is not strictly true. Indeed, if you cast seven consecu- 

 tive days from morning till night, with perhaps a couple 

 of hours rest in the middle of each day, and during that 

 time get one single rise from a fish of seven pounds or 

 over, your luck will then be fully up to the average. 



