106 ON TROUTING WITH THE FLY. 



and without giving the trout time to seize them 

 should they feel inclined. 



In order to make the flies light first, consider- 

 able force must be employed in casting ; and the 

 rod must be kept well up ; it should never be 

 allowed to make a lower angle with the water than 

 from forty to forty-five degrees. It is upon this 

 point that beginners fail. Their unavailing efforts 

 to get the line well out are entirely owing to their 

 allowing the point of their rod to go too far down, 

 and to their stopping it too quickly, which makes 

 the point recoil, and stops the line in its forward 

 motion. When the flies are just about alighting on 

 the water, you should slightly raise the point of 

 your rod ; this checks their downward motion, and 

 they fall much more softly. 



The first advice given to beginners, in all treatises 

 upon fly-fishing, is to acquire the art of throwing a 

 long and light line. This practice of throwing a 

 long line is the natural consequence of fishing down 

 stream and for this method of fishing it is absolutely 

 necessary the advantage being, that the angler is 

 farther away from the trout, and therefore less 

 likely to be seen. As we have already shown, this 

 can only be accomplished in a very limited and im- 

 perfect manner by throwing a long line, whereas 

 fishing up secures the object perfectly. 



In contradistinction to the maxim of throwing a 

 long line, we advise the angler never to use a long 

 line when a short one will, by any possibility, 



