PREFACE. vii 



When one recalls the pleasure and assistance which has 

 been derived from the literature devoted to fly fishing, the 

 works of Izaak Walton, Buxton, Cholmondeley, Pennell, 

 Maxwell, Francis, Marston, Sheringham, Hart-Davis, Long, 

 Thomas, Halford, Dewar, Hutchinson, and many others, the 

 delightful reminiscences which have been revived, and the 

 extensive fields of sport which have thus been thrown open, 

 it would indeed be ungrateful to deny the efficacy of written 

 instructions in this delightful science. 



If it be desirable and necessary to obtain help in order 

 to become a proficient fly fisherman, the author admits the 

 greater advantages of personal tuition when it is obtainable. 

 But, on the other hand, he is confident that, by explaining in 

 simple language the science of casting and fishing with 

 the trout fly, in similar terms to those which he uses when 

 teaching the student personally, the reader will, by careful 

 attention, find himself competent to take the field rod in hand, 

 and rapidly acquire a success which will well repay him for 

 his trouble. It is to those who are anxious to learn, but who, 

 at the same time, may regard this delightful accomplishment 

 as not only difficult to acquire, but necessitating a greater 

 expenditure of time and money than may possibly be at their 

 disposal, that the Author has written these pages. 



If he should be successful in imparting to others a skill 

 which has afforded him so many delightful and happy hours, 



