LOCHS AND RESERVOIRS 179 



at stake and speed seems desirable, such action will 

 result only in vexation and disappointment. It is 

 much better to maintain the course agreed upon and 

 to refuse to be led away from the straight path by 

 any rise, however tempting it may be. 



If, on the other hand, a fine fishing breeze is 

 curling the water, and trout are frequently showing, 

 the angler should be in the stern ; the boat may be 

 allowed to drift as usual, or it may be held up to 

 the wind. Some boatmen can work their craft to 

 perfection, making it hover over a fruitful spot, 

 while the angler gets many chances of laying his 

 flies exactly where they should be placed, and men 

 of that type deserve the major portion of the credit 

 for the day's spoils. 



The flies should not be cast straight down wind, 

 unless a fish rise in the track of the drifting boat ; 

 they should rather be sent out between the boat and 

 the wind, at an angle of 45 perhaps, because they 

 are thus more readily kept tight to the line and the 

 rod, making a strike more certain of success. Above 

 all things, the angler must remember not to aim for 

 the surface ; a trout rising within his distance 

 unexpectedly is very likely to make him forget for 

 the moment the great necessity for delicacy in the 

 fall of the fly. 



In lochs where such a thing is practicable, dry-fly 

 fishing from the bank is by far the more interesting 

 method. The monotony of the drifting boat is 

 done away with, and the variety of the ever-changing 

 coastline is agreeable. How easily the hours slip 

 past as one wanders round, casting the flies out upon 

 the water, raising even only an occasional trout, 

 with now and then a greater success. 



