76 A rtificial-Fly Fishing. 



fishing down or across the water, let them match 

 themselves for a day with fishers who fish up the 

 water, and on comparing baskets, the follower of 

 ' old saws ' will gape with due wonder and dumb 

 astonishment, when he finds how much he is out- 

 stripped by the follower of ' modern instances.' " x 



Whence, then, this difference in the results ? or 

 wherein has the up-stream fisher the advantage ? 

 The first, and indeed the chief advantage is, that 

 when the angler has raised and hooked a fish, he 

 pulls it down-stream into water over which he has 

 already fished ; and thus the water above, where 

 his next cast will be made, remains undisturbed. 

 Whereas, should he be fortunate enough to hook 

 a trout in fishing down-stream, he must, to ensure 

 its capture, take it still farther down, thus dis- 

 turbing the water which he has not fished, and 

 throwing away any chance of fishing it to profit. 

 Though this fact is undisputed and indisputable, a 



1 Though not a consistent advocate of fishing up-stream, Mr 

 Richard Penn, in his 'Maxims and Hints,' published as early as 

 1833, enumerated two of the advantages claimed for this method. 

 He says : "When you are fishing up-stream, you have a better 

 chance of hooking those which rise at your fly, because the dart- 

 ing forward of a fish seizing it has a tendency to tighten your 

 line, and produce the desired effect. If you are in the habit of 

 catching a fish sometimes, there is another great advantage in 

 fishing up-stream viz. , whilst you are playing and leading (ne- 

 cessarily down-stream) the fish which you have hooked, you do 

 not alarm the others which are above you, waiting till their turn 



