32 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



There's a rise again by our bank, just ahead. You can 

 locate the exact place of the rise, which is three feet from 

 the bank, just opposite that sedge. If you do not take some 

 landmark, your eye will follow the ripple as it comes down 

 with the stream, and you will probably cast your fly below 

 the actual position of the fish. 



When a trout has risen, the sooner the fly is placed above 

 him the better. His appetite has just been whetted by a 

 tasty morsel he has probably not yet turned to his former 

 position, and the swirl of the water, his own motion, and the 

 alteration of his position will probably prevent a too 

 analytical scrutiny of the fall and the appearance of the line 

 and fly you present to him. 



Take the rod, and when you have found the distance 

 cast the fly lightly, just two feet above the position we have 

 marked. No ! no ! What a mess you have made of it ! 

 You are again forgetting your lessons in your eagerness, 

 and have smashed your line on the water, and probably put 

 the fish down. In making your downward cast, instead of 

 finishing when your forearm was level with the elbow and 

 the rod inclined at an angle of about twenty-two degrees 

 above the horizon, and then lowering your rod as the 

 line travelled forward, you brought your rod right down 

 almost to the water, and consequently the direction of your 

 line was downward instead of horizontal. It's no good trying 

 for that fish again ! Try for the one in the middle that has 

 just risen, and project your line horizontally, so that your 

 fly will fall on the water about two feet above the position 

 at which he last rose. Don't make the back cast too soon ; 

 let the fly get well below the place where the fish rose. 

 A trout will at times let a fly pass, and then turn and follow 

 it down-stream ; and even if the fish does not then take the 

 fly, he would be scared by your lifting your line too soon. 

 N ow lift your rod and made another cast. That one is better. 



