94 ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



the angler will be liable to pains and penalties even 

 when fishing in private waters. In a conservancy 

 district, as a rule, everyone who fishes for salmon 

 or trout must take out a licence ; thereby the 

 conservators gain the income which they expend in 

 preserving the rivers under their charge. They are 

 also on the whole not too ready to listen to pleas of 

 ignorance when a man has been discovered fishing 

 without possessing a licence. 



Now the novice repairs to the river to a spot 

 where, some twelve yards wide, it ripples over a 

 long shallow into a long still pool. Bushes grow 

 all along the further bank, and under them the 

 water is about 3ft. deep. On this side the meadow 

 slopes gently down to a strip of shingle whose edge 

 is kissed by the stream, here only an inch or two in 

 .depth. From this side the bed of the river shelves 

 gradually until it is deepest under the other bank. 

 It is there that most of the trout will be lying, and 

 thither the novice must endeavour to send his flies, 

 beginning at the bottom of the shallow and working 

 his way up stream. But first he must practise 

 casting for a while to get the " hang " of it before 

 he begins to fish in earnest. Pulling off four yards 

 of line from the reel in addition to the three yards 

 of gut, he tries to propel his flies straight out onto 

 the water in front of him, using the rod as the 



