46 Wet-Fly Fishing 



your fly past the barb into a fish. Many 

 and many a trout have I thus taken. 



When an overhanging tree has to be 

 avoided, with a side cast, how much it 

 adds to one's pleasure, to hook some good 

 trout which hitherto has reigned there 

 unscathed. 



In any such pool as that which I have 

 tried to describe, how should you fish? 

 Well, broadly, I think, on these lines. You 

 can try your own side first, and cast across 

 rapidly; but, when you come to fish the 

 further side, try to cast up and partly 

 across. Let your tail fly come as near to 

 the further bank as is compatible with 

 safety. In some angling works, you will 

 be told to allow your fly to land on the 

 further bank, and then to gently draw it 

 off, as it will then fall upon the water as 

 softly as thistle-down. 



This is beautiful in theory, but it must 

 be swallowed with a large grain of the salt 

 of common sense. If the grass is newly 

 cut, or cropped short, good ; but to attempt 

 these tactics where a tangle of long grass 

 and heather, bramble and bushes twisted 

 together line the bank, would be folly. 

 Wherever it is safe to do so, the fly can 

 hardly be thrown too near the further bank. 



