44 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



fly has become blunted, and if you have no file you will 

 most likely lose your fish and spoil the rest of your day's 

 sport. 



Now fish up that run, beginning where you saw the rise 

 in the pool below it. Cast your fly just where the rush of 

 the stream begins to lessen, and let it float well down. 

 Strike. Well done ! Bring the fish down into the pool, 

 so as not to frighten the others in the stream above. Keep 

 him out of that dark deep bend, where the blackberry- 

 bushes dip into the stream. That's right : don't touch 

 your net until you have beaten him. Shorten your line a 

 bit more, and now use your net ; stoop down as much as you 

 can, so as to keep out of sight, not only of the fish on your 

 line, but of others which may have followed him down. 

 Well done ! Give me the fish and dry your fly again, and 

 try the run right up from where you caught your last. 

 Never mind looking for a rise : there are sure to be fish 

 there. Well done again ! and a good one, but you struck 

 with your arm and shoulder, and have broken your cast. 

 Now quickly : we must not lose time while the fish are 

 taking so freely. Let me see your cast. Yes, you have 

 broken off the lower point, so I place about two inches of 

 the end of the cast in my mouth to soften. You see this 

 cast-box ; it has some slightly moist white flannel in one 

 compartment, in which have been lying a spare cast, and 

 some fine points. I take out a point, look at it with my 

 watchmaker's glass in my eye. Yes, it is all right smooth 

 and free from glints. So I pass it through my lips, close the 

 box again, and, taking the point I have selected, make an 

 overhand knot in the extreme end. I take the broken 

 end out of my mouth, run it through the overhand knot, 

 and make another knot of the same kind in the end of it, 

 only enclosing the gut point in this knot.* I draw both 

 * See Diagram 7, p. 121. 



