viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 



the subject of fishing generally, including the laws 

 as to the Boards of Conservators, and the question 

 of netting as affecting the future of the salmon in- 

 dustry, and have added an Appendix on the question 

 of Salmon v. Trout in our Fishing Rivers, dealing 

 principally with the question as it refers to the 

 Hampshire streams. 



The dry fly fisherman has, as a rule, only one oppor- 

 tunity at each fish, and it is with him that the making 

 or marring of that chance rests. Each initial cast for 

 a trout possesses a greater or less difficulty, and it will 

 be due to the immediate and skilful manner in which 

 he takes advantage of the opportunity that his success 

 will depend. The most essential portion of the dry 

 fly fisherman's art and the most difficult to acquire is 

 the power to place at once and with certainty the right 

 fly, delicately and accurately, over his fish. 



The beginner, he who has been badly taught, or the 

 self-taught man who may have acquired bad habits, 

 fails to understand why his friend catches readily and 

 easily fish after fish during a long day, while he secures 

 but a few, if any. 



The skilful fly fisherman who takes every possible 

 fish within his reach seldom, if ever, attributes his suc- 

 cess or his friend's failure to the real cause, which is, 

 the certain and immediate skilfulness or unskilfulness 

 of each, and I am of the opinion that " The greatest 

 success in fishing will attend the most skilful rod." 



Since launching the first edition, just one year 

 ago, practical experience acquired in teaching others 

 has taught me that I could improve in several 

 ways the written instruction in which I had therein 



