30 Dry-Fly Fishing. 



therefore the better way, while the head of the fish 

 points down-stream, is, if possible, by a back-handed 

 draw to strike up the contrary way. 



It is wonderful how seldom a gut cast breaks 

 under the even pressure of a bended rod. Perhaps 

 the most dangerous tactics a trout instantly resorts 

 to when first hooked are to rush up-stream and try, 

 with instinct approaching to reason, to entangle the 

 line, the hook, and himself at the base of a weed 

 bed, not infrequently, if improperly handled, taking 

 two or three turns round their roots and making 

 fast thereto ; that is then a desperate case, and 

 usually a break away, after much anxious waiting 

 on the angler's part, is inevitable. But half the 

 risks of being so helplessly weeded are done away 

 with in advanced modern dry-fly practice if, instead 

 of trying to restrain the first rush, a free line is 

 given, and when the fish stops (it may be in the 

 middle of a dense weed bed) the line be carefully 

 wound up, the rod held vertically in the right hand, 

 or sloping at the back of one's right shoulder, and 

 then the running line be taken by the fingers of the 

 left hand and very gently pulled taut, so that the 

 position of the fish may be almost as certainly felt 

 as if the index finger touched him. If at first no 

 movement is felt, he is perhaps still entangled, and, if 

 so, an even sustained pressure brought to bear on the 

 now quite tight line will often cause the weeds to 



