146 BAITING WITH THE LIVE FLY. 



will tell you that the best way to reach these 

 sheltered fish will be by the cunning use of a 

 living insect. 



The first thing you have to learn, is the best 

 way to insert your hook in the insect so as to least 

 injure it, and impede its natural motions. There 

 must be no roughness employed in this operation. 

 The insect must be handled tenderly, and the 

 hook inserted so as not to puncture any mortal 

 part of your frail bait. If you use but one fly, 

 insert the hook under one of its wings, bringing 

 it out between them at the back. If you use two 

 flies, carry the hook through the upper part of the 

 corset beneath both wings of one fly, and then 

 taking another with its head reversed let the 

 hook enter under one of its wings, and come out 

 at the back of this second insect. This double 

 head-to-tail bait is a very good one. If you 

 are fishing in open water, with a breeze blowing, 

 your winch-line must be of floss silk, and your foot- 

 line of about a yard of very fine gut, or of a couple 

 of long links of horse hair. Without casting, and 

 by keeping the breeze to your back, holding up 

 your rod, and letting out your blow-line, you can 

 easily manage to make the wind carry it to the 

 spots where you see fish rising. When you dip 

 beneath bushes your ordinary silk and hair winch- 

 line will do, with a foot -line of gut. By turning 



