SWITCHING. 161 



certainty, particularly if the gut be not thoroughly sound 

 and strong. 



At night, however, the angler should always fish down, 

 or rather across and down, or he will miss three-fourths 

 of his rises owing to the slack line not giving him suffici- 

 ently quick intimation of the rise. Added to this, unless 

 lie makes too much disturbance, the fish will let him come 

 within two or three yards of them, and being usually on 

 the watch for any insect that moves, no matter how or 

 what, they will take his fly boldly. But I shall recur to 

 night-fishing hereafter. The question of fishing up or 

 down, therefore, is, to a certain extent, a divided question, 

 but the angler should always give the preference to fishing 

 up. But in whatever style he fishes, as his art is one of 

 clever deception, he should attend to and imitate nature 

 as closely as possible. 



In very windy weather, or in difficult places midst trees 

 and bushes, the angler will often have to employ other ways 

 of casting. When the wind is blowing heavily down-stream 

 or he has trees at his back, he will have to switch his 

 line. 1 Raising the point of the rod high in the air, so as 

 to lift as much of his line as possible clear of the water 

 without lifting the fly altogether off the surface, he must 

 make a sharp forward and downward cut, and the fly 

 without going behind him at all will rise from the water 

 and describe a large arc of a circle in the air towards the 

 point he wishes. A wind at the back will much facilitate 

 the making of this cast effectually. Occasionally he will 

 meet with a piece of water where the trees are not only 

 close at his back, but where their branches stretch out over 

 the water, often just above his head. This is usually 

 tabooed ground, as not one fisher in a thousand can cast 



1 This plan is more often adopted in salmon -fishing with the double- 

 handed rod than in trouting, though in the latter it may at times be used 

 with advantage. 



