Casting the Fly. 281 



John, before whom as guide hosts of anglers of all 

 grades had passed in review year after year, "sized" it 

 in a moment. 



" Yes, it was elegant casting, but it was mighty poor 

 fishing, all the same." 



For consider it a moment. The fish cruised in deep 

 water around the break of the bar. That was where they 

 concentrated, coming from all directions down the lake. 

 There, too, the water was not so deep but that a slow- 

 moving fly might tempt them from the bottom itself. 

 This water, the very cream of the whole, was utterly 

 ignored. His flies lit where the depth was not far from 

 twenty feet, beyond the possibility of tempting anything 

 not considerably nearer the surface than the bottom. 

 Again, the fish were working from all directions towards 

 the outlet, and consequently the chance of one being 

 there within the reach of his fly was mathematically far 

 more remote than at the bar itself. Also, with that length 

 of line, had he allowed his flies to rest a moment on the 

 water, it would have been impossible to retrieve them 

 for the back cast. They but touched it and were off. 

 Large trout seldom, if ever, take a fly with the dash of a 

 four-ounce fish. They at all times, till the sting of the 

 hook galvanizes them into action, comport themselves 

 with dignity, and their movements are made with a con- 

 sistent deliberation. There was hardly a possibility of 

 his taking anything m that way; and so John justly 

 characterized it when he said, "It was elegant casting, 

 but mighty poor fishing, all the same." 



It may, however, be that the gentleman was merely 

 amusing himself, and showing us how he could cast. If 

 so, " I take off my hat to him," for anything more ele- 

 gant in that line I have seldom or never seen. 



