TROUT STREAM INSECTS 119, 



universally acknowledged authority in fly-fish- 

 ing matters, it would, indeed, be presumptuous 

 in me to say that this method of handling a 

 hooked trout and of assembling rod and reel is 

 all wrong, were it not that, as I am quite sure, 

 the majority of experienced American fly-cast- 

 ers so regard it. The practice of most expert 

 fly-casters in this country is to adjust the reel 

 underneath the rod, but, in contradistinction to 

 the method above described, with the handle of 

 the reel to the right. Thus, when a fish is 

 hooked, it is not necessary to turn the rod over 

 when it is passed from the right to the left hand, 

 but the reel is retained underneath the rod at 

 all times, the very best position for it, for sev- 

 eral reasons, for the business of fly-fishing. 

 Moreover, the best way to play a trout is dis- 

 tinctly not from the reel. It is taken for 

 granted in the above discussion, and also in the 

 following, that the fly-caster uses a single-ac- 

 tion reel. 



I believe implicitly that the best way to handle 

 a hooked trout, the one sooner or later adopted 

 by most anglers who do much fly-fishing, is as 

 follows: Having, as above noted, your reel 

 underneath the rod with the handle to the right, 

 maintain at all times, both when casting the flies 

 and playing a fish, a loop of line of convenient 



