ARTIFICIAL FLY-FISHING 65 



casting. But to attain anything like eminence in 

 fly-fishing, the angler must fish up, and all beginners 

 should persevere in it, even though they meet with 

 little success at first, and they will be amply re- 

 warded for their trouble. 



The only circumstance in which fishing down has 

 the advantage of fishing up, is when the water is so 

 dark or deep that the fish would not see, or if they 

 did see, would not have time to seize the flies unless 

 they moved at a slower rate than the stream. We 

 think that this rarely applies to angling for river 

 trout, as when inclined to feed upon flies they are 

 generally on the outlook for them, but it does apply 

 to salmon and sea-trout fishing. Both these fish lie 

 in strong deep water, and as they are not accustomed 

 to feed upon flies, they are not on the outlook for 

 them ; so that if the salmon-fisher were to throw his 

 flies up stream, they would come down at such a 

 rate that the salmon would never see them. Besides 

 which, it is obvious that whatever salmon take the 

 angler's fly for, they cannot take it for anything they 

 have seen before, and therefore there is no reason for 

 supposing they can detect anything unnatural in its 

 motion. 



We have devoted this chapter principally to the 

 errors of fly-fishing as generally practised, and we 

 hope we have succeeded in convincing the reader of 

 the truth of our observations ; but as we have fre- 

 quently endeavoured in vain by vivd voce demon- 

 stration to persuade anglers to fish up, we have no 

 doubt numbers will adhere to their own way. As 



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