PRACTICAL FLY-FISHING. 53 



watches its course without making a movement of the 

 rod. It floats, of course, and if the fish does not take it 

 just as soon as the radius of its circle of vision is passed, 

 it is lifted again from the water, dried, and cast as be- 

 fore. If you are fishing " likely spots " instead of a rising 

 fish, the same procedure is gone through with, and the 

 result has ever been to me satisfactory, often beyond 

 all expectations. Of course, on very rapid mountain 

 streams, this method should be modified to suit circum- 

 stances, but under no existing or possible conditions is it 

 necessary to fish down stream en an open fairly slow 

 stream. 



Some object that motion should be given to the fly (if 

 so, give it by all means ; fishing up stream does not pre- 

 vent this ! ), but I would again urge that this is not 

 necessary to be natural. Land flies, blown on the water, 

 certainly do kick and endeavor to get ashore, but those 

 born of water larvae do not. Their home is on the water, 

 where they lay their eggs and perish, and it is natural for 

 them to flutter into air once in awhile, and then to settle 

 down and be blown as a disruddered sailing vessel, whith- 

 ersoever the wind listeth. 



Supposing the fish rises to your fly strike, not roughly 

 but sharply, rather with a swift pulling motion than a 

 jerk. That everlasting "turn of the wrist," which we 

 piscatorial scribblers are so wont to recommend, is a de- 

 lusion to the learner. Anything like a jerk sends the 

 point of a fly-rod forward, unless it is immoderately stiff, 

 and, of course, retards the hooking stroke. To make 

 this plain, let the reader take his fly-rod and try his most 

 artful of sharp strikes. One of the morals is, " Don't 



