FISIIlXlJ IN LltJHT WIND. 



the boat be, as the boat of the Celt too often is, ragged as 

 to her bottom, with rusty nails, and a broken sheathing, 

 &c., your line will probably be cut, or if only hung up, 

 what with poking it clear and other expedients, the line 

 will be so frayed as to be useless. If the boat does not 

 catch it something else may, and probably when you get 

 all clear again you will find that the errant fish has left 

 your stretcher, and possibly the dropper too, fast in a lump 

 of tough mossy weed fathoms below, and is himself < Liber 

 et exultans ardet pixels in aquis? Always contrive, if 

 possible to keep the fish under the point of the rod, and 

 never, as far as it can possibly be avoided, under the l>ut. 

 The rod must be nearly upright when the fish is gaffed ot 

 netted, but that is the only time when it should be so. 

 Take care, too, when the fish is gaffed or netted and dropped 

 into the boat, to loosen your line or drop the point, or tlm 

 sudden call on the top may snap it Knock the fish on 

 the head at once for many reasons, and waste no time in 

 admiration, for when they are * in the humour' is the time 



rake them.' 



If the wind is light and the fish come short, either take 

 a turn at the minnow, which is usually the dernier resort 

 of the lake-fisher, or let out a long line and trail your flies. 

 They will frequently be taken freely thus by the fish, being 

 some foot or eighteen inches under water. Don't get over 

 the ground too fast ; it is a common fault with boatmen ; 

 they keep on row, row, row, when you don't want them to ; 

 and, confound them, they very often won't or can't when you 

 do want them. You must fish all your water carefully ; it 

 pays better, is less trouble, and more workmanlike to do 

 so than to hurry on and scamp a lot of water, spoiling it 

 for any one else and not taking your change out of it your- 

 self. You need not make the same cast more than twice 

 a trout comes either at the first or second shot, and if 

 he does'nt a third won't fetch him. 



