4 CHATS ON ANGLING. 



From the latter are required in a special degree a quick and accurate 

 eye, great delicacy and accuracy in the actual cast, and above all, a 

 quiet, watchful disposition ; he cannot whip the water on the chance of 

 catching an unseen trout. His role is to scan the water, to watch the 

 duns and ascertain their identity, to spot at once the dimple of a rising 

 fish, and to differentiate between such a rise and the swirl made by a 

 tailing fish. He will note the flow of the stream, and whether he will 

 have to counteract the fateful drag. Having made up his mind, arranged 

 his plan of action, and selected his fly, he will crawl up as near as may 

 be desirable below his fish, taking care not to alarm in his approach 

 any other that may lie between him and it ; then, after one or two 

 preliminary casts to regulate his distance, he will despatch his fly, to 

 alight, as lightly as may be, some three or four inches above his fish. 

 His field glasses will have told him, even if his natural eyesight could 

 not, the quality of the fish he is trying for, and for good or evil his 

 cast is made. 



Perhaps he has under-estimated the distance, and if it be a bank fish 

 he is attacking his fly may float down some twelve inches from the bank 

 under which the fish is lying. In that case he will not withdraw 7 it until 

 it is well past the trout, but he may have noted that half-defined, but 

 encouraging, movement which the trout made as the fly sailed past. His 

 next cast is a better one, and, guided by the stream under the bank, the fly, 

 jauntily cocking, an olive quill of the right size and shade, will pass over 

 the trout's nose. A natural dun comes along abreast of his ; will his poor 

 imitation be taken in preference to the Simon pure ? By the powers, it is ! 

 A confident upward tilt of the trout, a pink mouth opens, and the ooo hook 

 is sucked in ; one turn of the wrist, and he is hooked. Despite a mad dash 

 up stream the bonnie two-pounder — in the lusty vigour of high condition 

 — is soon controlled and steadied by the even strain of the ten-foot cane- 

 built rod. Down stream now he rushes ; he will soon exhaust himself at 

 that game. Keep quietly below him, and keep the rod-point up. That 

 was a narrow squeak! He nearly gained that weed-bank! Had he effected 

 his purpose, nothing but hand-lining would have had the slightest chance 

 of extricating him, but the rod strain being applied at the right moment 

 and in the right direction, the gallant fish is turned back. That effort, 

 happily counteracted, has beaten him ; he soon begins to flop upon the 



