CHAP. xii. Approaching the Water. 181 



the habit of living on or near the water, and thus becoming the 

 common food of fish. But if we cannot ascertain the natural flies, we 

 -can only do as our fathers pretty generally did in England, and as not 

 41 few are still well content to do, namely, to make arbitrary guesses at 

 the sort of fly to be used at certain times and places, with very little 

 reference to entomology, preferring to it, indeed, such crude regulators 

 as the colour of the water, and the brightness or otherwise of the day, 

 lo guide our preferences, and after all coming back to this, that if one 

 man has killed with a certain fly, another may. For the Barilius 

 Bakeri, then, any small trout fly will do, the black, perhaps, for 

 preference, the size being No. ooo Sneck or Kirby. 



It must not be presumed that, because fish are small, they are not 

 shy. There is no sequence at all in the argument. It may be that 

 some small fish are not so shy as the bigger ones, but some sorts again 

 are ; and you may be very sure that none bite the better for seeing a 

 biped making demonstrations at them from the shore. None but those 

 which have been fed by hand will be sociable. Therefore, if you go 

 and stand bolt upright at the very edge of the stream, and don't get 

 sport, don't blame me, that is all. Do not you remember how even 

 the little burn trout in Scotland dart away directly they see a Saxon on 

 the bank ? 



You will very much improve your sport if you will condescend to 

 be careful in this matter, even with small fish, and notably with the 

 Barils. They should be fished for just as carefully as a trout. It is 

 well to remember that fish ordinarily lie with their noses up stream, 

 looking in front of them, and, more or less, on each side of them, for 

 what may be brought down to them by the stream, but not behind 

 them ; and as you know that their backs are consequently all turned 

 the same way, that is down stream, and they cannot see with their tails, 

 it stands to reason that if you want to approach them unobserved, your 

 best chance of doing so is from below them in the stream ; and this is 

 why the most successful fly-fishermen endeavour always to approach a 

 bit of water from below, and take the best fish throwing up stream, and 

 pulling down towards them, or rather just keeping the line taut while 

 the stream brings their fly down to them. The most convenient plan 

 is to fish a river upwards, that is, to commence fishing at the lowest 

 part of the river you mean to fish over, and to walk upwards as you 

 fish. This saves retracing steps, as you stalk to the foot of each pool 



