294 Fly-rods and Fly-tackle. 



nipulating artificial flies in trout fishing, and that this was 

 not the only proper manner to display them at all times, 

 in all places, and under all conditions, I had never enter- 

 tained the most remote suspicion. After feeling his way 

 with some caution, in order to be sure the suggestion 

 would not be deemed officious, he said, " That method of 

 handling the flies may be all right on small streams and 

 in clear water, but here it is next to useless." Had he 

 told me that the flies should be displayed on the bank, 

 rather than on the stream, I could scarcely have been 

 more astonished. Utterly demoralized, I surrendered the 

 rod, and asked for a practical exhibition of his method. 

 The first cast at once indicated the expert. The flies lit 

 lightly on the water, and there remained for at least thirty 

 seconds, without other motion than that they gradually 

 sunk below the surface. Then he drew them towards him 

 by a series of very slow and short pulls, each separated 

 by a brief pause from its predecessor, till near enough for 

 another cast. 



That trip, though the net result in the way of fish was 

 nothing to boast of, was one of the most remunerative 

 fishing excursions I have ever made; for I then learned 

 to be extremely diffident when strange waters were under 

 discussion, and invariably to listen, with at least appar- 

 ent patience and respect, to the suggestions or views of 

 others. 



Though the method I then used is undoubtedly correct 

 as a general rule in clear waters, at least if of no great 

 depth, it is by no means invariably, or even usually, ad- 

 vantageous in the brown-colored waters of which so many 

 of our trouting streams are composed, especially on deep 

 pools. 



One of the most marked cases in point is the Rangely 



