FIRST EMPTYING. 41 



will agree with me on all points. It is not tackle that 

 catches fish ; it is knowledge born of observation. I know a 

 workman whose fingers, swollen with honest hard work at 

 his own daily trade, are capable of dressing exquisite 

 artificial flies, which will kill fish, as old Robert Ramsbottom, 

 of Clitheroe, used to say, on any lake or river in the world 

 " if in competent hands," an important reservation born of 

 his experience of flies and anglers. Now, I seriously incline 

 to believe that my working man is equal to taking three 

 yards of gas-piping for a rod, and five yards of bell-wire for 

 a line, and with a little gut and a hook and one of his own 

 flies at the end of it, going out and killing a fish on that fly. 

 Mind, I do not say he would care to do it, or that he is likely 

 to try ; I only insist that if he did try you might be sure the 

 odds were against the fish. It is the man, my gentle 

 reader, the man and his eyes, the doors through which he 

 takes in his practical observations. Very briefly, then, here 

 are the secrets of successful angling in the order of their 

 importance : 



1. An accurate knowledge of where the fish are lying. 

 Half the anglers we see are wading where they ought to be 

 fishing. 



2. The art of keeping out of sight. 



3. A quick eye to detect a rise, many rises being invisible 

 to all but the keenest and most practised sight. 



Reasonable imitations, in size and colour, of the flies on 

 the water. 



PLAYING A FISH. 



A not inconsiderable part of the pleasure of fishing for 

 any game fish is that of playing him when hooked. I have 

 seen men, and among them some of my most intimate friends, 

 haul a fish out hand over hand, as it were, the moment they 

 had hooked him ; and once on the Clyde I saw a big 

 Scotchman wading a short distance above Crawford, who 



