126 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



but I found out that my suspicions as to how it had always 

 been fished for were correct. 



Yes ; there is nothing pays better with good fish than a 

 little careful preliminary study of their territory. Never fish 

 them rashly or without due consideration, or you do more 

 harm than good. If a good fish rises at the fly and refuses it, 

 you should not cast again immediately ; give him a few 

 minutes' rest to recover himself, and take advantage of any 

 cloud or puff of wind that may occur when you throw again. 

 If he again comes short, give him another rest, and try a dry 

 fly over him ; it that fails let the fly sink well six or eight 

 inches, or even more, under water, and if that does not succeed, 

 either change the fly or leave him the latter for choice. 



If fish are rising short, rolling over the fly, or flapping at it 

 with their tails to drown it, oblige them at once by letting it 

 sink, and your attention to their wishes will often be rewarded. 

 To show the advantage at times of sinking the fly, I will relate 

 a circumstance. 



Fishing in Hampshire some time since, on the Earl of 

 Portsmouth's water, I had had very indifferent sport all the 

 morning, for although there was a good breeze on, and a fair 

 show of fly (yellow dun), the fish appeared to take very badly, 

 though they rose well enough. I had cast my fly into the 

 water, and having to light my pipe, I allowed the fly to sink to 

 the bottom ; when I recommenced, I raised the point of the 

 rod to withdraw the tackle, but the line was too long and 

 dragged, and I fancied it had taken hold of a weed. I then took 

 the line in by hand, and found that, instead of being caught in 

 a weed, the fly had been picked up by a good fish. I struck him 

 with the hand and eventually killed him. The hint was not 

 lost on me : I had thrown over a good fish some seven yards 

 above, not five minutes before, and he had risen and refused ; 

 I now cast over him again, and allowed the fly to sink to mid- 

 water, when he took it directly, and I killed him. I then tried 

 some other fish, which I had previously been fishing over 

 futilely ; and, following the same plan, I rose and hooked six 

 brace of capital fish of from one and a quarter to two pounds 

 each, killing four brace of them, and losing two brace owing to 

 my hook having sprung in striking a good fish on some bony 

 part of the mouth. I had only killed two small fish during the 

 whole of the morning previously. The fish were evidently 

 feeding either upon drowned flies (though these would hardly 

 sink I fancy) or upon larvae. 



