WHERE AND WHEN TO FISH 105 



tions, and the fly should be so presented that 

 it will ask nothing uncommon of him. 



Many anglers fail to take fish from these justly 

 famed and wisely chosen domiciles of big trout, 

 because of their reluctance or inability to esti- 

 mate the odds on or against the sporting propo- 

 sition. They are not ready to risk a ten cent 

 fly for the purpose of properly fishing a spot 

 which has cost them a hundred times as much to 

 reach. With a few desultory casts placed, usu- 

 ally, where they will do the least good and where, 

 perhaps, a dozen others have been placed be- 

 fore that same day, sometimes within the hour 

 they move on. Congratulating themselves that 

 they are safely out of a tight place, or comfort- 

 ing themselves with the thought that if a trout 

 had been hooked it would have been lost any- 

 way in the tangled mass, they abandon the 

 spot but always, I opine, with a lingering look 

 backward. That these promising but difficult 

 waters are prone to lure the angler into danger 

 of hanging up solidly should make them the 

 more interesting. When a good trout is taken 

 from them, it is usually by a master of the craft, 

 and no compassion need be wasted upon the 

 fish it has fallen into good and deserving hands. 



The common practice of careless anglers is to 



