106 ANGLING. 



suck in the victim; you think him " trash," and make a care- 

 less bungling cast, and " whoosh ! " Who would have 

 thought it ? Off he goes, with a furrow like a four-oar. 



Fish taking under banks, whether in your own side or 

 opposite, always take much better than fish rising in the 

 open stream ; they are close at home, and have shelter at 

 hand, and have more confidence. It requires great nicety 

 of casting often times to get fish out from under your own 

 or an opposite bank ; they lay there almost touching, and 

 rising within an inch of the bank, and you must cast 

 within an inch of the bank too. It is of no use to cast 

 six or eight inches or more this or that side of it dozens 

 of flies pass along out there which the trout never notices 

 for he knows that enough will pass within an inch above 

 his nose to afford him a good full meal without any need 

 of his swimming a foot for it ; and, if you want to rise 

 him, your fly must come over him too. In a fish of this 

 kind, too, it is not safe to drop your fly within much less 

 than a yard of him, about four feet above him is perhaps 

 the proper thing ; and if it comes fairly to him, and no 

 twig or spine of grass, or bunch of weed outside, catches 

 the line and causes the fly to do queer things, and the fly 

 happens to appear to be of the same sort that his worship 

 is devouring, or there is nothing objectionable about it, 

 you will see that magic dimple as your line is passing the 

 spot, and find that you have an interest in that perform- 

 ance if you tighten the line. 



I need not say to the angler cast lightly and don't 

 splash, for if he does, he will very soon find out the im- 

 portance of these instructions for himself; nor need I 

 further add that it will be conducive to sport to present 

 your fly to the trout as like a fly as possible, either alive 

 or dead it matters very little, perhaps, which. 



