A Dry -Fly Purist's Advice to a Beginner. 31 



break away. At that critical moment the rod 

 should take up the line released from the left hand, 

 and the fish be firmly played from it, while the 

 victim is drawn down- stream, and, out of all danger, 

 successfully landed. Some men prefer to spike their 

 rod into the bank when a fish weeds them, and use 

 only their hands to coax or draw him forth ; but to 

 make use of the rod, as described above, is more 

 sportsmanlike, and gives greater pleasurable excite- 

 ment to the angler. 



THE FURTHER LOSING OF TROUT. 



Sometimes a well -hooked fish is lost by the jam 

 knot slipping from the eye of the hook, if the finest 

 drawn or gossamer gut be so tied to an eye rather 

 too large for it. That is one reason in favour of 

 using needle or small-eyed hooks, and Major Turle's 

 knot in preference to the jam knot. It is much 

 safer in all cases, but not quite so easily tied, 

 especially if one's sight be not very good, or at dusk 

 towards the end of the evening rise, when every 

 minute is of consequence, and it is often a period of 

 excitement sufficient to make an angler's fingers less 

 steady to manipulate the tying-on. Another risk 

 with the jam knot is when, on applying paraffin to 

 the artificial fly to make it float better, the knot and 

 the eye of the hook are inadvertently oiled too. In 

 that case the gut is apt to soften, and then, after 



