Getting Out the Fly Books 



ing drawn up for the back cast, as if the 

 evidence of its departure excited them ir- 

 resistibly to embrace a last chance. But 

 whatever this motive be, it probably ac- 

 counts for multitudes of instances in which 

 somebody's "fancy/' tied on the spot, 

 brings up fish, after all the standard favor- 

 ites have proved worthless. This success 

 of the aforesaid fancies is too often " for 

 this occasion only." 



But there again are instances which lead 

 to the belief that the fish sometimes rises 

 through anger, aversion, or a desire to at- 

 tack and drive away the fly. Here it is 

 possible that a resemblance is seen to some- 

 thing which has elsewhere been an annoy- 

 ance. Sometimes the reason of the anger 

 is evident, as when a heavy male salmon 

 makes open-jawed rushes at the casting- 

 line which holds his mate captive. But 

 ordinarily the reason of the attraction or 

 annoyance excited by a fly must be merely 

 a matter of conjecture. A friend of the 

 writer, a very skilful and observant angler, 

 relates the following instance : On one 

 of those depressing days in which salmon 

 are very abundant, plainly visible, and ab- 

 solutely indifferent to the angler's solici- 

 tation, he laid down his rod, and, for 

 experiment's sake, dragged or floated over 



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