FLIES AND FLY FISHING. 33 



motions of the top of the rod. This requires a great deal 

 of practice before it can be satisfactorily accomplished ; 

 but having once arrived at doing it, there are very few 

 places where you are unable to get your flies, and it is in 

 these spots, very difficult of access, and which are passed 

 over by most fishermen, where the best fish lie, and the 

 power to fish them enables one man very often to kill 

 when another has almost a blank day. In very large 

 fivers a man's eye must tell him the best water to fish 

 ,-and the best mode of doing it ; in a moderate sized river 

 xjast as a rule, about one yard higher up the stream than 

 where you are standing, and as close as possible under the 

 opposite bank ; follow the flies with the top of the rod, 

 just keeping the line taut, as far as you wish them to 

 travel, do not work your flies at all, with the exceptions of 

 the stone fly, the cow-dung, the blue-bottle, and the general 

 fly, No. 5 in this book, which flies you may work freely. 

 In very fine clear water fish with the finest gut and 

 eschew all drop flies, one good fly is enough. In heavy 

 colored water throw almost directly down stream, letting 

 your flies alight about one foot from the bank where the 

 water is tolerably deep, and fish within two or three 

 inches of the sides. In this description of water it is also 

 best to work the flies up and against the stream. ; but in 



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