292 THE SALMON FLY. 



Now this is just one of those important measures that may come to 

 us in actual fishing by mere chance. Accident, say perhaps a stumble in 

 wading, might cause one's .well-balanced rod and properly weighted line 

 to do something or other, which does not fail to be noticed, and then, 

 feeling an immediate tug of a fish, one makes a special note of the un- 

 expected effect so produced. 



In point of fact this is exactly how the " mending " business 

 originated with me. But the chance for discovering any such new 

 method of treatment as this seldom occurs now as the opportunity hardly 

 ever comes. Comparatively unwary, vigilantly on the watch, fish used 

 to follow the fly bustling across the river anyhow, and leave it alone until 

 the water, not the Fisherman, compelled the lure to, sooner or later, 

 assume that natural position, which, in these days, is absolutely required 

 from start to finish. 



Eagerness on the part of the fish in that direction is the exception at 

 the present time, not the rule, so in the matter of presentation has fishing 

 long since undergone a fundamental change. 



The object of this practice in presenting the fly, clearly, is to incite 

 immediate action on the part of the fish rather than encourage indolent 

 inspection. It happens to be a delightfully simple performance, if the 

 Angler is provided with a line so constituted as to instantly respond to 

 the turn of the wrist. We do not propel the fly, as of yore, and leave it 

 to fate and fortune ; on the contrary, we take care to promptly counteract 

 the instant effect of water which occasions the line to take a snake like 

 course, by mending the cast ; that is, by lifting the rod with telling effect, 

 and by a simultaneous turn of the wrist, to the right or left as the case 

 may be, switching over the belied portion of the line (caused by the lift ing) 

 by which means the fly is compelled to fish straight throughout the area of 

 the cast made. 



This latest art-achievement in fishing it is new to many may 

 strike the inexperienced as being an extremely insignificant matter, but 

 in reality, it is the essence of " presentation " and on most rivers the. very 

 foundation of success. 



No ; fish do not follow the fly as they did " when the novice hooked 

 them at the first bungling throw" not one in fifty. Those halcyon 



