32 FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 



to be acquired is, great command over the rod, so as to be 

 able to place the stretcher fly on the exact spot required. 

 It must always be remembered that good fly fishing con- 

 sists in presenting the leading fly to the fish ; the drop flies 

 are only auxiliaries. The more exactly a man can throw 

 his fly, the better fisherman he is ; and fly fishing is like 

 pistol shooting in that a good performer at either, can, with, 

 constant practice, arrive at the utmost precision, and with 

 the single-handed rod be able to throw a fly at the end of 

 either a short or very long line almost to a hair's breadth* 

 and to fish thickly- wooded waters that most men would 

 never think of attempting. Practice also enables a man, 

 when wading, to fish in very confined spaces, in small 

 streams, where he has perhaps, only about six inches 

 behind him in which to wield his rod. 



If you see a very likely place under a bank or the 

 roots of a tree, but which it is impossible to fish in the 

 usual way on account of the great thickness of the over- 

 hanging bushes, should there be an opening of two or 

 three inches anywhere within about twenty yards or so 

 up stream, throw your fly into that opening and follow it 

 down stream until it arrives over the place you wish to 

 fish, keeping the fly close under the bank or bushes and 

 straight out from your rod by a succession of slight jerky 



