FLY FIIHINQ. 81 



what the weaker for wear, it would be your better plan to use it 

 double or even treble, as well as to give it a rub of shoemaker's wax, 

 with which I perceive like a good fisherman you are provided with. 

 And as the sun has come out too bright to expect much sport just 

 now, I will sit down beside you, and offer a little advice on 

 one or two points on which it seems you require some instruc- 

 tion. In the first place, I observed that you approached far too 

 near the banks, and that you devoted more attention to fishing 

 the opposite side than your own, generally trying that part of the 

 river first; and in approaching near enough to the brink to enable 

 you to do this you exposed yourself to the view of every fish on 

 your own side. As a general rule I have found it the better plan to 

 fish the near side first, but which I invariably depart from when 

 the opposite side is the more likely one to succeed in. J also re- 

 marked that you cast your flies too far down the stream below you, 

 and drew them across towards your own side : the effect of which 

 must be, that every fish that approached your flies came directly 

 towards yourself at the same time, and consequently detected your 

 presence, which in nine times out of ten would cause him to turn 

 tail without touching your fly at all. 



Scholar. I admit the truth of your remark, having so often 

 to-day had occular demonstration of it ; and yet I have known 

 many who esteem themselves no mean proficients in the art, who 

 always fish in precisely the same manner I have done. 



Old Angler. And so have I too, but the method is an equally bad 

 one notwithstanding. I recollect on one occasion angling in com- 

 pany with one who called himself a good fisherman, and who threw 

 a fly in the mode I have just before condemned. The day, if I 

 remember right, was not a very favorable one for our purpose, the 

 sky being almost cloudless, with a raw March North Wester blow- 

 ing, whilst the stream we fished in was very clear and narrow, yet 

 by keeping well back from the water, and throwing always up 

 stream, I contrived to pull out a few trout ; but on coming up with 

 my companion, who had been fishing ahead of me the whole time, 

 I found that he had caught nothing ! As it not unfrequently occurs 

 in such cases, he laid the whole blame on his ill luck and the wea- 

 ther, and the river, and the fish too, for not being more plentiful 

 there ; and then I ventured to hint to him, as delicately as possible, 

 the real cause of his failure ; but this he by no means took, as it 

 was intended, expressing at the same time an opinion that his skill 



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