58 DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. 



THE STRIKE. 



Having attempted to compromise the contro- 

 versy upon gut drawn or undrawn, it is no use 

 shirking the still more important one of when 

 and how to effect the strike. Fishing, as we 

 all of us must often do in full view of that 

 professional bystander, whose occupation is to 

 spend his eight hour day upon the bank giving 

 advice to amateur anglers, who could manage 

 to dispense with his company, one cannot avoid 

 remembering the remarks thus occasionally 

 volunteered : that * you were not quick enough ' ; 

 and that * the gentleman down here last week 

 never missed a fish.' 



Still, it is not only bankside Jeremiahs who 

 advocate this desperate quickness in striking; 

 for I see in the ' House on Sport ' that a fellow 

 member, after upwards of ten years experience 

 on the Test, gives the advice to strike as quickly 

 as you possibly can. It is obvious therefore 

 that the practice must have much to recommend 

 it; and in the case of grayling I agree 

 unreservedly. 



With trout, especially fair sized trout, my 

 own opinion tends to dissent; for, bearing scores 

 of cases in mind where I have failed to hold 

 a fish after the strike, I believe that it has more 

 often been due to the hurried than the leisurely 

 practice. Two friends of mine, whose know- 

 ledge and experience are equal to anyone's, took 

 pains to test the time occupied by several trout 

 in the process of rejecting an artificial fly, and 

 came to the conclusion that extreme quickness 



