BROWN TROUT. 



ARTIFICIAL FLY-FISHING IN RIVERS AND LAKES. 



IN thus placing Trout-fishing before Salmon- 

 fishing, I invert the usual order of sequence. I 

 do so deliberately, because, both as a sport, and 

 as indisputably the most popular branch of angling, 

 it seems to me to be entitled to precedence. With 

 no assistance but his rod and no guide but ex- 

 perience, the Trout-fisher wanders down the bank 

 of the untried lake or stream, selecting by intuitive 

 perception the most likely casts, and if he raises a 

 heavy fish has many a heart-quake and many a 

 moment of breathless suspense, before he transfers 

 the shining beauty to his creel. No Salmon-fisher, 

 on the contrary, however skilful, can select for 

 himself the places where he ought to fish, Salmon 

 apparently being guided by the merest caprice in 

 the choice of location, so that the very stone 

 behind which the fly must fall to give a chance of 

 success, has often to be pointed out by the local 

 assistant ; whilst the tackle used is so strong, and 

 generally the nature of Salmon casts so open, that 

 with ordinary skill a fish once fairly hooked has 

 little chance of breaking away. The chief glory 



