182 THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



LIVE FLY AND BEETLE FISHING. 



Dibbing or daping with the natural fly is an easy art, 

 and is, moreover, a very productive and, we may add, a 

 very seductive one, when reasonably practised upon a 

 densely wooded stream. It is often useful as a means of 

 weeding out old fish, whose cannibal propensities go far 

 to exterminate their own species, as well as their imme- 

 diate neighbors and relatives. There is small scope for 

 skill in the use of the live fly, as employed under the 

 above circumstances, as the foliage lining the banks 

 shields the rodster's person from view, whilst the strug- 

 gling lure accomplishes the rest. The rod and line must 

 necessarily be both short and stout for the general comfort 

 of fishing. An ordinary fly rod with short top answers 

 admirably for the purpose, whilst the three or four feet 

 of gut bottom line should be strong, round, and clear, 

 without a faulty place or blemish. Deplorable loss often 

 ensues from carelessness in looking over the tackle before 

 commencing operations. It needs ever to be remembered 

 that the weakest place in a line, be it of what substance 

 it may, decides its precise degree of strength throughout, 

 as when the testing tini9 arrives, the thing breaks at that 

 point, despite its strength elsewhere. A flat or unduly 

 thin place in gut should always be taken out before loss 

 and damage are experienced from its presence. 



The systems of using the natural fly for the allurement 

 of fish, in use at the present day, are three in number, 

 which may be described as follows 1st. Throwing or 

 casting in open water; 2d. Midwater fishing, or daping 

 with the sunken fly; 3d. Surface fishing and dibbing. 

 The first enumerated is fully dealt with in the Monthly 



