The Fishing of Rivers with the Wet Fly 1 1 1 



may, if you do it with skill, occasionally 

 score by fishing down stream; but, rather 

 than preach and teach the practice of 

 down-stream fishing, I would lay down my 

 pen, and burn my manuscript. 



I return with relief to the fishing of 

 our Scottish rivers when normal, or even 

 below normal in volume, and clear as 

 crystal. 



It is a real and high pleasure to make 

 a good basket, under such conditions. My 

 rule, then, is to wade up, and to fish up 

 in all places where it is at all feasible. The 

 larger the river, the less the opportunity 

 presents itself to fish little nooks, eddies, 

 runs, and turns, and, in fact, all the charm- 

 ing " bits " which all born fishermen so 

 love. In a quite low river, there is a 

 nearer approach to all this, than at any 

 other time. 



As I have already mentioned, large 

 Scottish rivers, when abnormally low, are 

 fished very much after the principles and 

 methods adopted by the wet-fly fisherman, 

 when fishing his own tributary streams 

 " waters," in fact. 



I shall now presume that I am dealing 

 with the subject, not in the too early 

 spring, when trout are flabby, and the sport 



