SECOND DAY. 407 



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

 artificial fly, which also I will shew 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 com- 

 monly 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, ten, or twelve pieces, so neatly pieced, and tied 

 together with fine thread below, and silk above, as to make 

 it taper like a switch, and to ply with a true bent to your 

 hand ; and these too are light, being made of fir wood for 

 two or three lengths nearest to the hand, and of other wood 

 nearer to the top, that a man might very easily manage the 

 longest of them that ever I saw with one hand ; and these, 

 when you have given over angling for a season, being taken 

 to pieces and laid up in some dry place, may afterwards be 

 set together again in their former postures, and will be as 

 straight, sound, and good as the first hour they were made ; 

 and being laid in oil and colour, according to your master 

 Walton's direction, will last many years. 



