CHAP. V 3 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 259 



and down to look for prey ; though in a stream, you may 

 always, almost, especially if there be a good stone near, find 

 him in the same place. Your line ought in this case to be 

 three good hairs next the hook ; both by reason you are, in 

 this kind of Angling, to expect the biggest fish, and also that, 

 wanting length to give him line after he is struck, you must be 

 forced to tug for 't ; to which I will also add, that, not an inch 

 of your line being to be suffered to touch the water in dib- 

 bling, it may be allowed to be the stronger. I should now 

 give you a description of those flies, their shape and color, and 

 then give you an account of their breeding, and withal show 

 you how to keep and use them ; but shall defer that to their 

 proper place and season. 



VIAT. In earnest, Sir, you discourse very rationally of this 

 affair, and I am glad to find myself mistaken in you ; for in 

 plain truth I did not expect so much from you. 



Pise. Nay, Sir, I can tell you a great deal more than this, 

 and will conceal nothing from you. But I must now come to 

 the second way of angling at the top, which is with an arti- 

 ficial-fly, which also I will show you how to make before I 

 have done : but first shall acquaint you, that with this you are 

 to angle with a line longer, by a yard and a half or sometimes 

 two yards, than your rod ; and with both this, and the other, 

 in a still day, in the streams, in a breeze that curls the water 

 in the still-deeps, where (excepting in May and June, that the 

 best Trouts will lie in shallow streams to watch for prey, and 

 even then too) you are like to hit the best fish. 



For the length of your rod, you are always to be governed 

 by the breadth of the river you shall choose to angle at : and 

 for a Trout-river, one of five or six yards long is commonly 

 enough ; and longer, though never so neatly and artificially 

 made, it ought not to be, if you intend to fish at ease ; and if 

 otherwise, where lies the sport ? 



Of these, the best that ever I saw are made in Yorkshire, 

 which are all of one piece : that is to say of several, six. eight, 



