THE BIG FLY. 167 



that it may be out of the way of the next proceeding, 

 which is to make a running noose by doubling the 

 end of the gut back and tying a single knot round 

 the main strand ; pull this knot tight, pass the fly 

 back down the cast and through the noose, and 

 then pull the noose itself tight round the neck of 

 the eye. The attachment so formed is very secure* 

 Very fine gut for this kind of fishing is a mistake, 

 because the fly is heavy and liable to get whipped 

 off, a thing which amounts almost to a financial 

 misfortune quite, when, as has sometimes happened 

 to me in a high wind, half a dozen flies are lost one 

 after the other. Indeed, I think it is better to err 

 on the side of caution, if error there must be. In 

 rough, broken water, such as one finds below a weir, 

 one can safely use quite stout gut. Also I think 

 cannibal trout are not so shy of the tackle as fish 

 which feed more on or near the surface, and the 

 bigger they are the less shy do they become, 

 provided that they are on the feed. It is very 

 little use casting over a monster except at his meal- 

 times. 



It has been said that the big fly is meant to 

 represent a small fish; it follows, therefore, that 

 the way to use it, both in rivers and lakes, is to 

 make it behave as such. It is not, therefore, 

 enough to cast it up stream and let it swim down 



