A DAY'S FISHING. 127 



it fall onto the water between each sweep of the 

 rod, he keeps it in the air the whole time. Casting 

 with the heavier, line is, he will find, an easier 

 matter than with the light one, as the rod does so 

 much more work on its own account. He must 

 watch his fly during each forward cast to see how 

 far it is from him, and when he judges that it is 

 about eleven yards away he must try to drop it just 

 in front of the k fish's nose. The chances are, that 

 at first he will have too little line out and the fly 

 will fall 2ft. or 3ft. behind the fish. That will really 

 be no disadvantage, for it will give him a clearer 

 idea of the distance, and at the next trial the right 

 spot should be reached. The right spot here is, I 

 think, about 6in. in front of the trout, which may 

 be surprised into taking the fly before he has time 

 to meditate on gut and other suspicious things. 



Possibly, once or twice, the fly will fall a yard to 

 the side of the fish, in which case he will ignore it ; 

 possibly it will fall heavily just over him, and then 

 he will flee in panic ; possibly it will catch up in 

 the sedges behind the fisherman (certainly it will 

 if he drops the rod-point too far back behind him) ; 

 possibly it will double back and fall in a coil of 

 line ; possibly it will crack off in the air while the 

 line is being extended : these and several similar 

 misfortunes are a part of dry-fly fishing, and they 



