DELICACY IN CASTING. 29 



will be admitted that the greater interest must centre in 

 fishing up stream. 



However, whether the angler elects to fish by dry or 

 wet method, or whether he may be spinning a minnow or 

 throwing a salmon fly, the essential object he has to 

 achieve is to throw his line in the lightest manner, and 

 thus avoid splashing and the consequent scaring of the 

 fish; and if he wishes to accomplish this, he should remember 

 that the more nearly he approaches a horizontal direction 

 for the forward cast of his line and fly, the more lightly 

 will his fly or line fall on the surface of the water. Light- 

 ness and delicacy of casting are especially necessary for 

 dry fly fishing, as the line has to be cast more or less 

 over the trout, and success will depend, therefore, to a 

 great extent on skill in casting. 



To be successful in either of these methods of trout 

 fly fishing requires patience, experience, observation, quick- 

 ness, and skill. 



Many excellent fishermen confine their fishing to either 

 the wet or dry fly method, but the most successful fisherman 

 generally will be he who is in reality the master of both. 



Even on such classical waters of dry fly fame as 

 the Itchen or the Test, there are days, especially in the 

 early part of the season and before the dry fly purist 

 gets to work, when the trout who cannot or who will not 

 see the floating fly will yet be caught on the sunken one. 

 Again, there are times on the northern waters of 



