FLYFISHING. 323 



that a cast of fifteen or twenty feet will not find them 

 ready to rise if they are hungry. You have also the 

 aid of the current in guiding your fly to each coveted 

 spot after it touches the water. 



Enter a stream, say its average width is seventy- five 

 or one hundred feet, few of our mountain streams 

 are so much, and a skilled rodster can cover it with 

 ease for wading down he chooses his water, makes his 

 casts, seldom over twenty or twenty-five feet of line to 

 a cast, much oftener less, and in "good waters" fills 

 his creel. 



For a forward cast, with your line as far out as may 

 be necessary for the distance, throw your rod sharply 

 back to an angle of not over fifteen degrees, and then 

 bring it forward quickly till, as your line and flies are ex- 

 tended, the tip is on a level with your breast, never 

 lower so as to dip water. With a line " taut," so to speak, 

 if a trout rises as your fly or flies touch the stream, a 

 sharp, quick turn of the wrist will strike the hook home 

 and secure him. Your strike must be firm and decisive ; 

 give the trout one second to understand and he spits 

 the fly out. Laugh if you will, but that is what he does. 



When hooked, if not too large for your tackle, draw 

 the trout swiftly to you, lift him out, and break his 

 neck, by bending back the head where it joins the 

 back-bone. Thus he is out of pain, and does not bruise 

 and flop himself soft, while dying, in your creel. 

 "Playing" a trout for the mere fun of the thing, is 

 unnecessary torture ; besides, you frighten more than 



