52 FLY-FISHING AND FLY-MAKING. 



kept taut by the stream, and the strike is thus never lost, 

 and the fact that one strikes dead against the mouth of 

 the rising fish instead of with a tendency to pull the fly 

 out, as is the case when fishing down stream, renders the 

 up stream position even more tenable than before. When 

 it is borne in mind that the big trout of the Itchen and 

 Test, and some other rivers of England running up to 

 three and four pounds are caught by this method on flies 

 dressed on the smallest procurable hooks (up to Xo. 16 

 Limerick), and that these wily fish, living in the most 

 limpid of chalk streams can be caught no ether way, the 

 feasibility of my advice may be thought respectable. It 

 is the fashion to deride what is termed the " old fogyism " 

 of Europe, but I can assure the reader there is none of this 

 commodity in its fly-fishing. The up stream, dry fly- 

 fishing as practised on the best rivers of the British Isles 

 is the evoluted result of the best inventive genius of in- 

 telligent, observant anglers, and designed for the capture of 

 the most artful of educated trout. The characteristics of 

 this system of fly-fishing may be fitly detailed at this place. 

 As before predicated, the angler moves up, if possible, 

 and prefers to cast to a rising fish. If he spies one ris- 

 ing regularly, he gently walks within casting distance, 

 the line probably trailing behind him in the water. To 

 make the cast he urges the fly backwards and forwards 

 twice or thrice through the air, until his quick eye sees 

 by the flying bait that he has enough line out to allow of 

 its falling about a yard above the rising fish. By this 

 time the fly is dry ; its swift passage through the air en- 

 ables it to become so, and the next time it is cast right in 

 front to the spot designated, and, when it falls, the angler 



