AND HOW I HAVE CAUGHT MY FISH 95 



to approach them with tender tread, bated breath, 

 and wonderful expectation. It helps to keep you 

 cheerful when your man is so brimful of hope ; he is 

 really worth a trifle more per day to men who, like 

 myself, dislike a face that turns their breakfast 

 sour. 



Billy's cheerfulness was not the only help. He 

 prompted me with the nicest care to each likely 

 spot, and once, when I had risen a fish at the brink 

 of a fall, rested it and risen it again, and again, he 

 explained to me that I had failed to hook the fish 

 because it had not as yet been able to quite reach 

 the fly, and that, to enable it to do so, the fly must 

 go over the fall, which would cause it to return by 

 a slightly different route. I handed him the rod, 

 the better to show me ; he made a cast and got the 

 fish. Billy is clever with the rod. 



There is not a single pool in all the river but 

 what can be fished either up or down. For trout 

 you would most frequently fish up and for salmon 

 down, but there are times when you may with profit 

 wade up behind a shy salmon and cast your lure as 

 delicately as you can just beyond his nose, showing 

 him the fly only. Should he accept your offer, 

 remember that your fly is not a luscious morsel that 

 will please his palate and then be swallowed ; strike 

 quickly, as you may safely do when taking him 

 from behind. It's very different when fishing down ; 

 then you should invariably wait until you feel the 

 tug. I know it is a great temptation when, just as 



