THE TROUT. 97 



scare the fish, and take off his attention from the 

 falling fly, though he may not connect the two 

 together in his own mind. Under the bank is 

 generally the most likely lie for a trout ; but there 

 is no absolute necessity for him to choose the 

 opposite one.* If the further bank be beyond 

 reach, content yourself with fishing under the one 

 on which you stand, which you may do cleverly by 

 throwing a little short of the centre of the stream, 

 and working the cast round. A tremulous motion 

 imparted to the stretcher as it falls on the water 

 is decidedly captivating ; but the killing movement 

 is that which, without dragging, impels the fly 

 along the water in a more or less gliding fashion, 

 stopping at intervals as water-insects do. The 

 stretcher, by the way, is the end fly, and gene- 

 rally the largest, the more readily to retain its 

 precedence ; the others are called " droppers," and 

 when two or more are used, should be fastened by 

 a small loop to the casting line, five and three, or 

 eight, six, and three feet from the stretcher. If 

 your cast be composed of flies of the same size, fix 

 the most likely one as a stretcher the chances are 

 three to one in favour of its first attracting the 



* An angler, especially a young one, is apt to be bitten ripa 

 ulterioris amore^ and in straining after the distant shadow, neglect 

 the proximate substance. 



7 



