144 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



must be perfect, and it must be kept dry, or it will not float. 

 Consequently the angler must whisk his line and his single fly 

 twice or thrice through the air between every cast on the water. 

 As soon as the fisherman has ascertained the position of a feeding 

 trout, and guessed the manner of fly it is feeding on, he throws 

 his imitation of it with a cast so contrived that it shall fall delicately 

 within two or three feet up stream of the head of the fish. The 

 fly sails down stream, but some six or eight inches to one side ; 

 the well-fed trout is too fat and lazy to move ; the angler lets it 

 float on, and only when it is well behind the fish does he flick it 

 gently from the water ; he makes two or three casts in the air to 

 dry his fly, and again throws with better aim above the feeding 

 fish. This time it passes within an inch of the trout's head, 

 floating delicately with wings poised and body resting so naturally 

 on the water that the fish is deceived ; a little circlet on the water 

 is the only sign that the trout has taken the bait. The angler 

 waits the fraction of a second, then rather tightens the line with a 

 firm pressure of his hand than strikes. He has a firm hold of a 

 strong two pound trout, and before the struggle actually begins 

 he is careful to draw the trout down stream away from the 

 subaqueous weeds and tree roots for which the fish will instantly 

 make. Then the fight begins, the angler always trying to draw 

 him down stream, the fish dashing hither and thither towards 

 the deeper pool. In three minutes, the landing net under the 

 tired fish ends the contest. 



The skilled mountain-stream angler, who has never failed to 

 carry home his ten to twenty pounds weight of fish, wonders how, 

 in a river full of fish, he can take but two or three tiny troutlets in 

 a dav. The reason is to be found in the abundance of insect 



