68 FLY FISHING 



all deal with them in the same way. We make 

 various experiments of our own, and each of 

 us after some years of experience has a little 

 store of conclusions which he believes in 

 and endeavours to apply. Some of these con- 

 clusions may seem to other anglers to be mere 

 foolishness, but wherever they have been applied 

 for years with moderate success, they are worthy 

 of record. I have, however, at various times 

 started in my own mind so many theories which 

 have been suggested by experience and after- 

 wards upset by it, that I do not desire to press 

 any one to accept an opinion, unless there is 

 anything in his own experience which goes to 

 support it. There is only one theory about 

 angling in which I have perfect confidence, and 

 this is that the two words, least appropriate to 

 any statement about it, are the words " always " 

 and " never." Theories, rules, creeds and hypo- 

 theses are constantly forming in the angler's 

 mind. Trout seem to make it their object to 

 suggest these only to upset and destroy them. 



There are three successive objects before the 

 angler : the first is to rise a trout, the second 

 to hook it, and the third to land it. All are 



