MY FIRST TROUT 3 



look out for a rising trout, and hammer away till one 

 is at length hooked and landed, after very many have 

 been scared." 



One can hardly take this advice as being seriously 

 meant, and although other writers and many fishermen 

 may argue on similar lines, they all admit the difficulty 

 and length of time required before a novice is able 

 to throw a fly in anything like a satisfactory manner. 

 Such Mentors might just as well advise an absolute 

 novice at cricket to don some pads, borrow a bat, face 

 the bowling and fielding of an Australian eleven, and 

 slog away until he has made a century or acquired 

 the science and skill of Dr. W. G. Grace, or Mr. L. C. H. 

 Palairet. 



How many fishermen can say that they owe nothing 

 to the advice or assistance of others in their earliest 

 attempts at handling the rod ? I myself caught a 

 trout when only four years of age, but my dear old 

 father was there all the time ; and although I after- 

 wards fished for over thirty-six years in most parts of 

 the world, I never realized the real science of casting 

 a salmon fly until 1896, when Mr. John Enright, of 

 Castle Connell fame, took me in hand. 



With every respect, then, for the writer I have 

 quoted, I am fully persuaded that the one thing a 

 novice can and should do before he goes down to 

 " scare the trout " is to learn the art of casting a fly. 

 With the best personal tuition the average novice can 

 obtain a perfect style in trout fly casting if he will 

 devote a little time between each lesson to practice ; but 



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