18 FLY FISHING 



claim, at any rate for fly fishing, that it involves 

 less pain than is inflicted in any other sport. 

 A.11 experience and observation go to prove that 

 what the fish suffers from most is fright, and 

 this is an objection which may be brought 

 equally against netting, and indeed against any 

 possible method of killing fish except by poison 

 or dynamite, of which the former is repulsive 

 and horrible, whilst the latter causes wholesale 

 and ruthless waste of life. Wordsworth calls 

 angling "the blameless sport," and with his 

 opinion on such a point any one may be content. 

 Having said so much, I will for the rest make 

 an appreciation of the pleasures of angling as 

 little comparative with other sports as may be. 



In angling, as in games, the earliest obvious 

 characteristic is the desire for success and the 

 consequent excitement. To those who are born- 

 anglers, this excitement presents a peculiarly 

 attractive and irresistible aspect. There is first 

 the expectation of a bite or a rise the sudden 

 thrill when it comes, and directly a fish is hooked 

 the overwhelming rush of anxiety as to whether 

 it will be landed. There is more than this ; there 

 is the spirit which seems to enter into the rod 



