282 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



In regard to the second fault in our enumeration, that 

 of postponing the back cast till the power to strike is 

 impaired, there is a way to surmount it, which, though it 

 may be in common use in some localities, I have never 

 seen employed except by the gentleman from whom I 

 borrowed it. For it may well happen that, when the 

 angler would prefer to take his flies off the water, he 

 has reason to suppose a trout is on the way to them. 

 If the fish is a large one, the probability of coaxing a 

 second rise may be doubtful. It is not wise to arrest 

 the motion of the fly, since one has been formed that is 

 attractive, and who can tell, if it halts, whether he will 

 not follow suit. So the temptation to postpone the back 

 cast becomes almost irresistible, usually entailing the con- 

 sequences of yielding to temptation. 



I can give a case in point, and from my own recent 

 experience. 



September of 1884 was decidedly an off month in 

 Maine waters. The weather held on warm, and the 

 customary cold rains held off, in a most exasperating 

 manner. So the big fish held off too. John and I made 

 up our minds to follow them to where they lived. It 

 was a tough job, involving lots of hard work, poling a 

 light canoe - shaped boat over rapids, paddling it over 

 pools, and lifting it over or crowding it under the nu- 

 merous giants of the forest, which the winter gales of 

 years had uprooted and thrown into the stream. Thus 

 we traversed some three miles of a river which, as far as 

 known, had been fished but once before, and that five 

 years previously. It was the perfection of a trout- 

 stream clear and cold, a succession of deep pools al- 

 ternated with rapids, while the primeval forest through 

 which it took its way shaded the waters, and furnished 



