30 A CURE FOR VIOLENT STRIKING. 



this is frequently done by those who are very 

 ardent, as well as those who, having been con- 

 victed of being too slow, attempt to amend by the 

 contrary extreme. We have fished with many 

 young hands who have struck the instant they 

 saw a fish rise even, and consequently, though 

 the bait must have been risen at, the mouth had 

 never received it, or, if it had, it had not time 

 enough to close upon it. Striking a fish should be 

 done with a smart, but not a violent effort. The 

 ardent angler will often strike with such force as 

 to tear away his hold on the fish, or to become 

 minus by gut and fly, which snap by the sudden 

 jerk. There is nothing better calculated to cure 

 a young practitioner who strikes too forcibly, than 

 to oblige him to whip for bleak, and to pay for- 

 feit for every one he raises above the surface of 

 the water, receiving forfeit for every one he hooks 

 without raising it into sight. The forcible stroke 

 that wholly misses its object often throws the bait 

 out of the water by the violence of the effort ; the 

 moderate stroke that misses will not displace the 

 hook more than a foot or two. The critical fish- 

 stroke is made by a very quick but very gentle 

 wrist-motion, by which the hand is canted upwards, 

 being displaced about two inches only. Such a 

 stroke made instantly the fish actually reaches the 

 fly (which is learned by habit), at the moment he 

 has closed his mouth on it, and before he has time 



