FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 169 



sportsman-like to attempt it. When it is desired to net 

 a fish, the usual rule is to head the capture to the nearest 

 available place if it should be impracticable where hooked; 

 and in all cases the net should be the medium by which 

 the quarry is conveyed to land. It may appear a very 

 simple matter to the unpractical mind to net an already 

 hooked fish, but anglers of experience know well, too 

 well, perhaps, that indiscretion and undue haste in land- 

 ing, or even presenting the net to a supposed exhausted 

 fish will cause him to make yet another plunge, when 

 least expected, for life and liberty. We always use the 

 net with our disengaged hand, holding it edgeways, part- 

 ly to enter the water readily, so as to get beneath the 

 fish, and partly to meet the fish, which is so brought 

 round as to enter the net forcibly. Bungling aid we have 

 always found worse than no assistance; and when the 

 practice of netting one's own fish is acquired we feel sure 

 anglers generally will find it much more advantageous 

 and satisfactory. Nothing is more common than for an 

 awkward servant or attendant to hit the quarry by pok- 

 ing at him with the sharp rim of the net, instead of 

 placing it under as he is brought near, thus knocking the 

 fish off the hook, if not otherwise breaking the tackle. 

 Who has not some painful remembrance of some deplor- 

 able loss of this kind ? For our own part we have had 

 quite sufficient lessons, not in trout alone, but in salmon 

 and pike-fishing, to cause us to refrain from trusting our 

 net to any individual not thoroughly acquainted with the 

 use and handling of it. 



Grayling especially require delicate handling when 

 about to be netted, for should the rod be unconsciously 

 elevated, so as to cause the weight of the fish to rest upon 

 the hook and tackle, the fish is in great danger of being 

 lost by the hook breaking away under the strain. Fish 

 should not be pulled even in part out of the water whilst 

 the net is placed under them, as this always causes danger 

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