79 



CHAPTER VII. 



Brown Trout. 



artificial fly-fishing in rivers and lakes. 



Salmon and Trout fishing contrasted. Ri'ver fly-fishing — How, when, 

 and where to fish. Drop-flies — More than one a mistake; theory 

 of. Striking and playing. 



In thus placing Trout-fishing before Salmon-fishing, I 

 invert the usual order of sequence. I do so deliberately, 

 because, both as a sport, and as indisputably the most 

 popular branch of angling, it seems to me to be entitled 

 to precedence. With no assistance but his rod and no 

 guide but experience, the Trout-fisher wanders down the 

 bank of the untried lake or stream, selecting by intuitive 

 perception the most likely casts, and if he raises a heavy 

 fish has many a heart-quake and many a moment of 

 breathless suspense, before he transfers the shining beauty 

 to his creel. No Salmon-fisher, on the contrary, however 

 skilful, can select for himself the places where he ought 

 to fish, Salmon apparently being guided by the merest 

 caprice in the choice of location, so that the very stone 

 behind which the fly must fall to give a chance of 



