114 Fly Fishing for Trout. 



trout. Here quickness of sight and patience come 

 in — the first to watch the fly come over him and 

 strike by a slight twist of the wrist at the proper 

 time, the second not to be too anxious to change 

 your fly or place. 



In some of the well fished rivers the big trout 

 become very wary, and I have known twenty 

 minutes spent over a feeding fish before he would 

 take the fly, and then if the fly is of the right colour 

 he will all of a sudden take it. This is particu- 

 larly the case in the Hampshire rivers which are so 

 much fished. Some years ago I had many a good 

 day on these rivers, but then there were fewer fisher- 

 men and the trout were more abundant, and perhaps 

 not so highly educated, although it required the 

 three rules to be implicitly followed if you wished 

 to fill your basket. 



From my experience (over forty years) I be- 

 lieve casting lines may be too fine, particularly 

 when you have to deal with heavy fish. It is true 

 you may raise more fish, but are more fish brought 

 to bank ? You cannot put sufficient strain on to 

 keep a big fish from the weeds, you dare not try to 

 lead him over the weeds, and when a fish is down 

 amongst them you cannot put on sufficient pres- 

 sure to draw him out of them. In this way many 

 .fish are lost, when, with slightly stronger tackle, 

 they would be in the basket. Fishing, the other 



