60 THE COxMPLETE ANGLER. 



stone near, find him in the same place. Your line ought in this 

 case to be three good hairs next the hook, both by reason you are 

 in this kind of angling to expect the biggest fish, and also that 

 wanting length to give him line after he is struck, you must be 

 forced to tug for it ; to which I will also add, that not an inch of 

 your line being to be suffered to touch the water in dibbing, it 

 may be allowed to be the stronger. I should now give you a 

 description of those flies, their shape and color, and then give you 

 an account of their breeding, and withal show you how to keep 

 and use them ; but shall defer them to their proper place and 

 season. 



ViAT. In earnest, Sir, you discourse very rationally of this 

 affair : and I am glad to find myself mistaken in you ; for in 

 plain truth I did not expect so much from you. 



Pisc. Nay, Sir, I can tell you a great deal more than this, and 

 will conceal nothing from you. But I must now come to the 

 second way of angling at the top, which is with an artificial fly, 

 which also I will show you how to make before I have done ; but 

 first shall acquaint you, that with this you are to angle with a 

 line longer by a yard and a half, or sometimes two yards, than 

 your rod ; and with both this and the other, in a still day in the 

 streams, in a breeze that curls the water in the still deeps, where 

 (^ xcepting in May and June, that the best trouts will lie in shal- 

 low streams to watch for prey, and even then too) you are like 

 to hit the best fish. 



For the length of your rod,* you are always to be governed 

 by the breadth of the river you shall choose to angle at ; and for 

 a trout river, one of five or six yards long is commonly enough ; 

 and longer, though never so neatly and artificially made, it ought 

 not to be, if you intend to fish at ease ; and if otherwise, where 

 lies the sport ? 



Of these, the best that ever I saw are made in Yorkshire, 

 which are all of one piece ; that is to say, of several, six, eight, 

 ten, or twelve pieces, so neatly pieced, and tied together with fine 

 thread below and silk above, as to make it taper like a switch, 

 and to ply with a true bent to your hand ; and these too are light, 



* For some remarks on the construction of rods, see part i., pp. 97-S, 

 123-4. 



