104 ANGLING. 



even as a matter of economy for it spoils the fish, and he 

 won't keep nearly as long. 



If I have advised the angler to be as unobtrusive as pos- 

 sible when fishing for other fish, this caution is needed ten 

 times more in fishing for so wary a creature as a trout 

 even small trout soon get to know their way about when 

 they have tasted steel ; but a good fish, and particularly a 

 veteran, is I do believe, next to a red deer, one of the 

 wariest, downiest, artfullest things within civilised crea- 

 tion. Where they are very little fished for of course they 

 are unsuspicious, but they very soon learn to know when 

 they are fished for. They soon get accustomed to the sight 

 of people walking along the banks if there be a footpath 

 near, but they know a fly or the wave of a rod with very 

 little practice. When fish are as wary as they are in some 

 of the Hampshire waters, you can't be too circumspect ; 

 and at times it is almost desirable, if you want to catch 

 fish, to swarm along on your stomach as you do in deer 

 stalking ; when the water is at all open, you must go down 

 on your knee, or get the stump of a tree or a bank at your 

 back, which will often serve you well with the wariest 

 trout. 



There is an old controversial matter among fly-fishers, 

 whether you should fish up or down stream, and, like 

 everything else in fishing, it depends on circumstances. 

 For example, at night you would almost always fish down, 

 because, having to trust very much to feeling, you want a 

 tight line ; again, if you are fishing with the dry fly, and 

 the wind is dead down stream, you can't fish up, particu- 

 larly if you are fishing the floating drake or dry May fly ; 

 but even when you are obliged under these circumstances 

 to cast down stream, you don't drag your fly up against it 

 only when fishing at night, or in very small streams 



