CHAP. vii. Striking. 127 



drawing my fly steadily and as slowly as possible, sometimes not 

 drawing it at all, but letting it swing round with the stream, varying the 

 throw and the draw so as to cover all likely water. 



Mind you do not pull too fast. Many a fish will not be troubled to 

 rise at a fly that passes him in too much of a bustle. Possibly it may 

 have passed him before he has well seen it, or even if he has seen it, it 

 is in too much of a hurry for him ; he is not inclined to rush after it 

 and scramble for it with his next door neighbour, who is just as wide- 

 awake as he is. Be that as it may, work your fly slowly : more fish are 

 killed thus than by quick fishing, and less fish rise short. 



And as to that much disputed question, the striking of a Salmon or 

 Mahseer, whatever rule you accept in one case is equally applicable in 

 the other. My plan is to strike as quick as lightning with a trout, but 

 with a Salmon or a Mahseer, not at all. If your line is thrown straight 

 and always kept taut, as it should be, you will feel a Salmon or 

 Mahseer, and no mistake, when he has your fly well in his mouth ; you 

 need not watch the swirl, as for a trout, you will feel fast enough if he 

 has caught your fly or missed it, and if you feel him then " belay there, 

 belay," hold on to him hard enough to drive the hook in well past the 

 barb ; hold on, not by touching the line, but by raising the top of your 

 rod, and making him bend the rod as much as you safely dare. He 

 will do the rest for you in his violent efforts to break away. There is 

 no occasion to strike with a jerk as for trout or small fish. If you do, 

 the chances are you will be just too quick for him, and will pull the fly 

 out of his mouth ; and if you do that you frighten him, and he will not 

 come again, which he might do if he was not conscious of anything but 

 having made an ass of himself, and missed a good thing. Remember, 

 also, he is taking it unconsciously and leisurely, not in a hurry to catch 

 hold of it before you shall snatch it away. In short, hold on to him 

 when you feel him and not before, just as you would to a stumbling 

 horse. But to do this properly you should not only have no slack line, 

 should not only be just feeling your fly with your rod top, as you just 

 feel a horse's mouth with the weight of a finger, and no more, so that 

 you are keeping up communication with your fly, and are in a state of 

 constant preparedness to act when called upon, but the point of your 

 rod should be held almost at a right angle to the direction of the line, 

 so that the fish when taking the fly, and striking himself by his weight, 

 may do so against the full play of the elastic rod. If the rod is held 



