i26 ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



between the fingers till it is of almost the con- 

 sistency of cooked spinach. Rubbed gently on the 

 gut it takes off a good deal of the glitter. 



At last the novice is ready for the attack. The 

 fish has risen two or three times more, and he is able 

 to locate its exact position, opposite a broken sedge 

 whose tip leans over into the water. The river 

 at this point and for ten yards below it flows quite 

 steadily, but then a bed of weeds causes a sharp 

 run close to the bank, and here the pace of the 

 stream is greatly accelerated. If, therefore, the 

 angler were to cast up-stream standing fifteen 

 yards from the fish, part of the reel-line would fall 

 on to this quick water. The result would be to 

 quicken the pace of the fly, since line and fly float 

 down stream together, and that would be unnatural. 

 A fly must travel at exactly the same pace as the 

 water, otherwise it " drags," which alarms the 

 trout instead of attracting them. So let the angler 

 approach stooping, and finally drop on one knee 

 about ten yards below his fish. Often one can get 

 even closer to a trout which is rising under one's 

 own bank, and that is an advantage ; an excellent 

 rule in dry-fly fishing is to creep as close to your 

 fish as you can without frightening them. 



Next, the novice extends his line just as he did 

 when wet-fly fishing, except that, instead of letting 



