PLAYINO THE FISH. 109 



tlragged by the stream. Then return to the tail of the 

 stream and fish the off-side in the same way. In very clear 

 water this plan is essential to success By all means the 

 fly-fisher should endeavour to give his flies as natural an 

 appearance as possible. He should humour them. If pos- 

 sible it should ,be allowed to drop lightly into the water 

 from a stone, leaf, grass-butt, or other substance on the 

 river. The quivering of the rod, the bobbing up and down 

 of the flies, moving them along by jerks, and a variety of 

 other contrivances, may be recommended to give them the 

 appearance of living insects. The best plan is to elevate 

 the point of the rod, so as to keep one or more of the 

 "droppers" skimming the surface of the watei. Never 

 drag your flies straight across the water. Should they be 

 finder water, any motion communicated to them is worse 

 than useless. If the trout hooked is a small one, out with 

 him at once without disturbing the water. If a large one, 

 pull it down stream. By doing this you have the force of. 

 the current in your favour, the fish chokes rapidly, and 

 exhausts itself more rapidly. Playing a fish is the great 

 crisis of angling. The struggle of force has commenced, 

 and it is doubtful which will be the conquerot, But be 

 calm. Decide if you can if your fish be a large one, or a 

 r.:.iall one hooked foul, that is, outside the mouth, in the 

 body, tail, or fin. which is often the case. A small fish 

 under theso circumstances is as strong and as difficult to 

 exhaust as A large one. If a large trout is deeply hooked, 

 he plunges at once to the bottom, and it will be necessary 

 to check him gently by raising the point of the rod. If 

 but slightly hooked, the fish struggles at first on the sur- 

 face of the water, as if by his antics he thought to get rid 

 of the troublesome bit :f steel If the top of the -od is 



