72 CATCHING THE WILY SEA-TROUT 



under the far bushed bank. Further, if a strong head- 

 wind is blowing, the risk, with flapping droppers, is ever 

 present of throwing a bird's nest. I write rather feelingly 

 on this subject as, on one exposed river which I fish, a 

 blustering half gale from the west always seems to be 

 racing straight across the water into my face. As I rent 

 one bank only, I am unable to put this mischievous 

 wind to a useful purpose. However, I have grown so 

 accustomed to the technique of placing a lonely fly that 

 the thought of selecting a dropper never occurs to me. 



In shooting the wet fly, aim at the far bank and allow 

 the fly to float with the current. The fly, in its travels, 

 should form an arc from the opposite bank to the near 

 one. When fishing similarly for brown trout you retrieve 

 your line, at the end of its journey, by slow motion ; 

 but for sea-trout you need to act differently, and the most 

 killing way is to recover the line by a series of fast jerks. 

 A safe method by which this result can be attained is to 

 point your rod downstream, and then wind the reel in a 

 sequence of one slow revolution to three quick ones. 



The reason for this apparently unorthodox reeling is 

 because a sea-trout is not lethargic in its actions. If a 

 fish is lurking under the near bank and it is in a taking 

 mood, it will mouth a fast moving object without hesi- 

 tation, but it will ignore a fly that is being gently re- 

 trieved. I may add that I have caught many a beauty 

 by adopting this stratagem. On lochs the fly is always 

 regained by a succession of sharp jerks : the idea being 

 to impart a life-like attractiveness to the artificial. When 

 I deal with spinning a metal minnow, I shall elaborate on 

 the peculiarities of a snapping sea-trout, and you will 

 then be more convinced concerning the effectiveness of 

 quick reeling. 



After the cast is made and the fly is carried with the 

 flow, every care must be exercised to avoid drag. The 



