io8 Fly Fishing for Trout, 



returns home satisfied with his sport, and being 

 thoroughly convinced that he has filled his creel 

 with ''lusty trout" by his skill in casting the fly, 

 he finds no difficulty in agreeing with the vener- 

 able author of the " Compleat Angler," that " fly- 

 fishing is an art : " " an art worth learning ; the 

 question is, whether you are capable of learning it." 

 Although it requires much skill and judgment to 

 cast the minnow well, or work the red fly {Ltcmbri- 

 ciLS terrestris) so as to lure the fish, yet, of all 

 methods of fishing for salmon, trout, or grayling, 

 none can compare to that with the artificial fly. One 

 can hardly describe in words that peculiar sensation 

 of satisfaction and pleasure when, having cast the 

 fly to an inch over a feeding trout, an almost 

 imperceptible turn of the wrist, as the water breaks 

 at the rise, tells that the prey is fast. Then 

 the coming struggle, so well described by our poet 

 Thomson : — 



" But should you lure 

 From his dark haunt beneath the tangled roots 

 Of pendent trees, the monarch of the brook, 

 Behoves you then to ply your finest art. 

 Long time he, following cautious, scans the fly, 

 And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft 

 The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear. 

 At length, while haply o'er the shaded sun 

 Passes a cloud, he, desperate, takes the death 

 With sullen plunge ; at once he darts along. 

 Deep struck, and runs out all the lengthen'd line, 



