Casting the Fly. 335 



principle in playing a fish is to get it away from the 

 place where it was fastened and to the surface of the 

 water, where one can watch its pranks, as soon as possi- 

 ble. The reasons for this are threefold and obvious. 

 Trout love cover, and the place where they harbor is apt 

 to be snaggy. To foul a snag when a decent-sized fish 

 is on is to abandon hope in nine cases out of ten. Again, 

 where one fish is hooked others are apt to be, and further 

 sport may be reasonably looked for provided suspicion 

 is not aroused by the gyrations of the fish already fast- 

 ened. Furthermore, hidden dangers are those most to 

 be dreaded, since while we may by skill and good judg- 

 ment avoid those we can see, we must trust to blind 

 luck to escape those we cannot see. Now any trout, I 

 care not what its size may be, can be dragged quite a 

 distance from the place where it was hooked with no 

 more resistance than if it were inert, provided the angler 

 begins to drag on it the instant it is fastened. It seems 

 as if they did not realize for the moment what had hap- 

 pened to them. The secret is to get a move on them 

 at once and to keep them moving. The ordinary reel 

 is not quick enough, and the automatic reel is too weak 

 to do this. But by the method just described I have 

 done it time and time again, with never a failure, in 

 water so obstructed that no other course afforded rea- 

 sonable prospect of ultimate success. 



But to return to the strike. Promptness to respond 

 to a rise without a suspicion of hesitancy is practically 

 the important point. I have found it far more difficult 

 to induce the many beginners it has been my privilege 

 to instruct to strike promptly than to cast a very de- 

 cent fly. One and all, especially ladies, seem to act as 

 though they simply could not strike until the fish was 



