CHAP.V.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 26l 



less weight and violence, than would otherwise circle the water 

 and fright away the fish. 



In casting your line, do it always before you, and so that 

 your fly may first fall upon the water, and as little of your line 

 with it as is possible ; though if the wind be stiff, you will then 

 of necessity be compelled to drown a good part of your line to 

 keep your fly in the water : and in casting your fly, you must 

 aim at the further, or nearer bank, as the wind serves your 

 turn; which also will be with and against you on the same 

 side, several times in an hour, as the river winds in its course ; 

 and you will be forced to angle up and down by turns accord- 

 ingly ; but are to endeavor, as much as you can, to have the 

 wind evermore on your back. And always be sure to stand as 

 far off the bank as your length will give you leave when you 

 throw to the contrary side : though, when the wind will not 

 permit you so to do, and that you are constrained to angle on 

 the same side whereon you stand, you must then stand on the 

 very brink of the river, and cast your fly at the utmost length 

 of your rod and line, up or down the river as the gale serves. 



It only remains, touching your line, to inquire whether your 

 two hairs, next to the hook, are better twisted, or open. And 

 for that I should declare that I think the open way the better, 

 because it makes less show in the water ; but that I have found 

 an inconvenience, or two, or three, that have made me almost 

 weary of that way : of which one is, that, without dispute, 

 they are not so strong open as twisted ; another, that they are 

 not easily to be fastened of so exact an equal length in the 

 arming, that the one will not cause the other to bag, by which 

 means a man has but one hair, upon the matter, to trust to ; 

 and the last is, that these loose flying hairs are not only more 

 apt to catch upon every twig or bent they meet with, but 

 moreover the hook, in falling upon the water, will very often 

 rebound, and fly back betwixt the hairs, and there stick, 

 (which, in a rough water especially, is not presently to be dis- 

 cerned by the Angler,) so as the point of the hook shall stand 



