LAZY FISHING. 



tl ir> round your hat. Have a board set right across the boat 

 to rest on either gunwale ; on this you can sit either face 

 to front, or rear or astradle to either side, without fishing 

 in any cramped position. Be sure that you have a boat- 

 man who knows his business and who also will do as you 

 tell him, if you ctm get <w, which you can't very often ; 

 always use a double rod, but it should not be too long 14 

 feet is am pie. Don't use more than three flies ; these must 

 lie suited to the wind and water, so always have two or 

 three sixes of your best lake flies. 



Some people think that it matters not in lake-fishing 

 how you cast, for that it is a lazy careless sort of sport, 

 to be carried out anyhow; but remember this, friend 

 btudent, if a thing be worth doing at all it is worth doing 

 well ; and if a little extra care will put you a brace or two 

 of unusually fine fish above the careless angler who has 

 simply scared a brace or two of big ones by bungling 

 casting, rowing, or walking, you will own that the triumph 

 is not only deserved but worth reaping. When you feel 

 tired, careless, and bored, leave off, smoke your pipe, eat 

 your lunch, and contemplate the scenery until you see 

 K>me good fish move, and you become keen and eager 

 again. If you do not, it is a hundred to one that you 

 regret it, for somehow it is always when you are thus lazy 

 and careless that the big ones seem to find it out, and to 

 take advantage of you ; and just as you are thinking least 

 of fish and fishing, and have mechanically cast your fly 

 out to iU full extent, when the point of the rod is well 

 down, up he comes, perhaps with a splash that frightens 

 you out of your wits. You strike hurriedly and five times 

 us hard as you ought to do, and all the harder because the 

 stroke comes from the but instead of from the top. A 

 heavy fish and light tackle, with a hard strike tells its 

 story ; and away goes your pet fly, and you have no other 

 of the same pattern within five miles 



