22 -FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 



then, in reality, fish down stream. Two or three fisher- 

 men, who I trust will read this, will remember their 

 incredulity as to their doing this, and how long it was 

 before I could convince them of the fact but convinced 

 at last they were. 



Whenever you meet a man who talks very much about 

 his performance as a fisherman, and who, when at the 

 waterside, turns out an arrant impostor, he is almost sure 

 to be an advocate for fishing up stream ; it sounds more 

 difficult, and therefore more sportsmanlike in his ideas. 

 Even supposing you could throw directly up the river, 

 and could either work or allow your flies to come down 

 of themselves to you in a natural manner, with the rod 

 lower down stream than the line (which I assert is an utter 

 impossibility), it w^ould still be quite wrong to fish in 

 that manner. The chief advantages urged by the ad- 

 vocates of this theory are 



1st That the fish lie with their heads pointing up 

 stream, and therefore, when directly below them, 

 they do not see you. 



2ndly The fish in their rise meet the fly coming 

 down stream, and therefore, when fishing up 

 stream you strike against instead of from their 

 mouths, and are consequently more likely to 

 hook them. 



