98 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



a lower angle with the water than from forty to 

 forty-five degrees. It is upon this point that 

 beginners fail. Their unavailing efforts to get the 

 line well out are entirely owing to their allowing the 

 point of their rod to go too far down, and to their 

 stopping it too quickly, which makes the point recoil, 

 and stops the line in its forward motion. When the 

 flies are just about alighting on the water, you should 

 slightly raise the point of your rod ; this checks their 

 downward motion, and they fall much more softly. 



The first advice given to beginners, in all treatises 

 upon fly-fishing, is to acquire the art of throwing a 

 long and light line. This practice of throwing a 

 long line is the natural consequence of fishing down 

 stream, and for this method of fishing it is absolutely 

 necessary the advantage being, that the angler is 

 farther away from the trout, and therefore less likely 

 to be seen. As we have already shown, this can only 

 be accomplished in a very limited and imperfect 

 manner by throwing a long line, whereas fishing up 

 secures the object perfectly. 



In contradistinction to the maxim of throwing a 

 long line, we advise the angler never to use a long line 

 when a short one will, by any possibility, answer the 

 purpose. The disadvantages of a long line are, that 

 too much of it touches the water, and that it is 

 impossible to throw it as it should be done, making 

 the flies light first. It is also very difficult to throw 

 it to any desired spot with certainty to cast it 

 neatly behind a stone or under a bank ; besides which, 

 more time is necessary to throw it, thus wasting that 



