70 FISHING GOSSIP. 



so devoutly to be wished is as follows : The position 

 must be carefully reconnoitred from the opposite 

 bank, or nearest point of vantage, and the most eli- 

 gible spot for dropping a fly before the trout's nose 

 carefully selected. If there should be no suitable 

 opening for the rod, one can be made by a bill-hook, 

 and another lower down to admit the protrusion of a 

 landing-net may also be not disadvantageous ; and 

 lest the fish should be unnecessarily alarmed, the 

 openings may be made the day previous to that of 

 action. A short stout rod and line are used for this 

 purpose ; and the line, to avoid any obstruction or 

 entanglement, should be lightly wound round the top 

 of the rod. With the stealthy silence of a mole the 

 point of the rod is pushed out through the open- 

 ing, exactly over the trout's haunt, the line is gently 

 unwound by turning the rod in the reverse manner to 

 that in which it was wound on, and the fly suffered to 

 light on the surface of the water as softly as the hand 

 of a sacrilegious thief might glide into the pocket of 

 a Lord Mayor. If the operator from his position can- 

 not see the water, a person on the opposite bank, in 

 view of the spot, can guide every movement by waving 

 his hand either to the right or left, up or down, as 

 these signals may have previously been agreed upon. 

 The result is almost a certainty, the trout being 

 speedily transformed into that form of flesh known 

 in the United States as a gone coon. No delicacy 



