180 FLY-FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 



natural surroundings render it a matter of vital 

 importance, but as a general thing it is a point not so 

 well practised or understood as could be wished. 



STRIKING requires a keen eye, and a quick 

 wrist-effect to a greater extent than is easy to be 

 conceived by the tyro. A really accomplished 

 fly-fisher is not so frequently heard to complain of 

 the fish rising short. A dilatory rodster, whenever 

 the fish prove too quick by rejecting the steel- 

 hearted lure, after giving him the customary "pluck," 

 falls back upon the old and convenient excuses, the 

 tendency of which is to charge the effect of his 

 own shortcomings to the fish. Many theories are ex- 

 pounded in reference to the matter of striking. Some 

 anglers recommend an instantaneous " knock," others 

 advise a momentary pause after the lure has been 

 closed upon as being the correct thing, and some 

 affirm that, owing to the difficulty of acquiring the 

 right " knack " of driving home the delicate fly-hook, 

 far more fish are lost by an unnecessarily heavy and 

 spirited motion of the rod in a moment of excitement 

 than if striking were not adopted at all. The late 

 Mr. James Ogden, an old friend of ours, never let slip 

 an opportunity of declaiming against random striking, 

 always affirming that young inexperienced anglers 

 lose the major portion of the fish they raise through 

 awkwardness in this matter. " I have " says he, in 

 the columns of a leading sporting journal " in the 

 course of my experience seen some of the best rods 

 and tackle broken by this means, during a momentary 

 excitement I strongly recommend young fishermen 



