FIRST EMPTYING. 23 



longer than your rod, cast your fly, very carefully, or off it 

 goes, above you. Even if there is a mighty rush at it as 

 soon as it touches the water ; don't strike then ; if the fly has 

 disappeared, wait about two seconds, and then strike. A 

 trout usually makes two gulps at the stone-fly, the first 

 being apparently a simple seizure of the insect, either by the 

 big wings or the latter half of the body. The second is that 

 in which the fish takes in the fly completely and does for 

 him ; and it is the latter for which it is necessary to wait, 

 otherwise the angler will surely be taken in rather than the 

 fly, or the trout. 



In fishing the natural stone-fly it is almost essential that 

 you should have a breeze blowing at the rate of about two 

 knots an hour up stream. Inasmuch as it is absolutely 

 necessary that you must fish by wading quietly up the river, 

 it is equally important that you and the elements should be 

 of one accord. A strong wind down the river will not only 

 prevent you casting with accuracy, but will assuredly turn 

 your stone-fly into a blow-fly, by blowing it off. (This is a 

 bad joke, but it is not mine, which accounts for it). Given 

 a gentle breeze in a good May-fly season, a fine cast, a good 

 big stone-fly used tenderly, as though you valued it, you 

 throw your bait from ten to eleven yards from your hand 

 above you. If you try to throw too long a line you will 

 soon be in trouble. It is in the nature of the fly to run on 

 the surface of the water as nimbly and as cockily as she 

 does when she plays hide and seek with you among the 

 stones at the river's edge. If you cast well she will come 

 floating quietly down the river towards you, and what you 

 have to do is to raise your rod point gradually, so as not to 

 let the weight of your line drag her either under water or 

 into any attitude unnatural for an ordinarily healthy stone- 

 fly. A trout rarely, if ever, makes a dash and a splash at a 

 stone-fly, but just takes her in out of the way quietly, 

 making scarcely any fuss about it ; he makes sure of it in an 



