STRIKING WET FLY FISHING. 103 



jerks of the point of your rod. After a thunderstorm, 

 when numbers of drowned sub-imago are coming down, 

 and the pupa? probably not moving, then it is better to 

 adopt drifting. 



STRIKING. 



If the fly at which the fish rises is near the surface, 

 the motion of the fish, or perhaps the fish itself, can be seen, 

 and the strike may therefore be made at the time the touch 

 is or should be felt. When, however, the fly is well below 

 the surface, as is mostly the case in wet fly fishing down 

 stream, the first intimation the fisherman gets that a trout 

 has taken one of his flies is the pluck or pull at his fly. 

 In the latter case, if the fish is hungry, an immediate strike 

 may force the fly into the mouth of the fish before the fly 

 is rejected. In most cases, however, this pluck means either 

 a hooked fish or a missed one. The pluck in itself is quite 

 sufficient to hook the fish, and therefore, in so many as 

 eight cases out of ten, the hooking of a fish with a wet fly 

 down stream cannot be claimed as being due to any skill 

 or quickness in striking; while in at least eight cases out 

 of ten, the fish hooked with a dry fly or wet fly up stream 

 may be fairly claimed by the angler as due to his skill in 



striking. 



WET FLY FISHING. 



When three or more flies are being used on a cast, the 

 question as to the best distance which should separate them 

 is an important one. 



