242 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART n. 



VIATOR. In earnest, Sir, you discourse very rationally of this 

 affair, and I am glad to find myself mistaken in you : for, in 

 plain truth, I did not expect so much from you. 



PISCATOR. Nay, Sir, I can tell you a great deal more than 

 this ; and will conceal nothing from you. But I must now come 

 to the second way of Angling at the top ; which is with an 

 artificial fly, which also I will show you how to make before I 

 have done : but first shall acquaint you, that with this you are 

 to angle with a line longer by a yard and a half, or sometimes two 

 yards, than your rod : and with both this and the other in a still 

 day, in the streams, in a breeze that curls the water, in the still 

 deeps, where excepting in May and June, that the best Trouts will 

 lie in shallow streams to watch for prey, and even then too, you 

 are like to hit the best fish. 



For the length of your rod, you are always to be governed by 

 the breadth of the river you shall choose to angle at : and for a 

 Trout-river, one of five or six yards long is commonly enough ; 

 and longer, though never so neatly and artificially made, it ought 

 not to be, if you intend to fish at ease ; and if otherwise, where 

 lies the sport ? 



Of these, the best that ever I saw are made in Yorkshire; 

 which are all of one piece, that is to say, of several, six, eight, 

 ten, or twelve pieces, so neatly pieced and tied together with fine 

 thread below and silk above as to make it taper like a switch, 

 and to ply with a true bent to your hand. And these, too, are 

 light, being made of firwood for two or three lengths nearest to 

 the hand, and of other wood nearer to the top, that a man might, 

 very easily, manage the longest of them that ever I saw, with one 

 hand. And these, when you have given over angling for a season, 

 being taken to pieces and laid up in some dry place, may after- 

 wards be set together again in their former postures, and will be 

 as straight, sound, and good as the first hour they were made, and 

 being laid in oil and colour, according to your master Walton's 

 direction, will last many years. 



The length of your line, to a man that knows how to handle 

 his rod, and to cast it, is no manner of incumbrance, excepting 

 in woody places and in landing of a fish, which every one that 

 can afford to angle for pleasure has somebody to do for him. 

 And the length of line is a mighty advantage to the fishing at 

 distance ; and to fish fine and far off is the first and principal 

 rule for Trout-angling. 



Your line in this case should never be less, nor ever exceed 



