36 THE DRY FLY AND FAST WATER 



It should be permitted to float as far as it will 

 after its fluttering or skipping has ceased. The 

 beginner practising the cast will do well to 

 cast at right angles to the current, and he should 

 choose rather fast water for his experimenting. 

 The speed of the water will cause the fly to 

 jump, and the action it should have will be the 

 more readily simulated than if the first attempts 

 are made on slow water. 



I had made a flying trip to the Brodhead, 

 and, with that strange fatality which seems so 

 often to attend the unfortunate angler rushing 

 off for a week-end in the early season, found the 

 stream abnormally high and horrible weather 

 prevailing. After many attempts to get into 

 the stream, with results equally disastrous to 

 my clothing and temper, I abandoned all idea 

 of wading and walked and crawled along the 

 bank, casting my fly wherever I could but 

 rarely finding good water that could be reached, 

 and rising but a few small fish. As there was 

 a gale blowing in my face directly down-stream, 

 it was practically impossible to place a fly where 

 I wished with any delicacy, and I decided to 

 abandon the sport after trying a pool just above 

 me that I knew contained big fish. My first 

 cast on this water, made during a lull, fell 



