A Dry-Fly Purist's Advice to a Bee/inner. 33 



much prides himself on overcoming difficulties 

 which more prudent anglers would avoid ; he there- 

 fore never hesitates to present his counterfeit fly to 

 a sizable trout, haply rising in a haunt where, if 

 hooked, it is almost a foregone conclusion that he 

 cannot be brought to bank. A few fish are lost 

 that way every season. That also may possibly 

 occur through the line catching on to a low bending 

 or partly submerged branch of a tree, or because 

 the hook fastens thereon. "In a fix" like this, 

 one recalls to mind Rolfe's picture of an angler who, 

 fishing with a tail and also a dropper fly, has hooked 

 and played a lovely trout on each hook, but the 

 line having become fast in a bough he is unable to 

 land them, and the situation looks hopeless, a break- 

 away imminent not, however, to happen while the 

 painting lasts for men to admire. 



Losing fish as they are brought near or even to 

 the landing-net is of common occurrence, and is, 

 perhaps, to an irritable man, the most annoying of 

 the many adverse incidents that happen to him 

 during his season's practice with the fly rod. 

 Some of the causes which lead to such mishaps, 

 totally unavoidable or otherwise, are briefly referred 

 to in the following remarks, and the reader (if an 

 angler) must judge for himself under which heading 

 he will class his losses. Often a fish at the 

 moment of striking is felt to be only slightly 



