62 Pool-fishing more difficult than Stream-fishing. 



and the shorter your line the better you will hook and 

 kill your fish. Experience alone can make any person a 

 complete adept in the art, so as to enable him, as he 

 pursues his sport, to throw his flies behind stones, into 

 holds, under overhanging banks or trees, close to roots, 

 and into places where the best fishes are generally to be 

 found. That which chiefly conduces to success is to ac- 

 quire an accurate knowledge of the habits and haunts of 

 the fish for which one is angling, for without this know- 

 ledge little can be expected. 



If, therefore, any one aspires to be an able disciple of 

 good old Isaac, he will have to exercise his powers of 

 observation continually and earnestly; for, where so 

 many are candidates, and where high and low strive for 

 the prize, he will be counted only a laggard who fails to 

 attain moderate success. Take notice once more that all 

 Fly-fishing is to be done up the water, if possible ; your 

 own side first, then the middle, then the far side, regu- 

 larly. 



In fishing up stream a trout when hooked rarely 

 breaks the water, owing to his taking the fly a little 

 under it ; therefore, as soon as there is the least indica- 

 tion of a stoppage, and you do not see either your fly or 

 the fish, strike. When the fly is drawn up or across 

 stream, the fish dash at it, being afraid of losing it, and 

 consequently often miss it altogether a strong reason 

 why up-stream fishing is preferable. 



Fishing in preserved water is like battue shooting, it 

 soon loses its zest. But where the peasant and the peer 

 are alike free to fish, and trout are scarce, then are the 

 merits or demerits of each fully discovered; and every - 

 practical angler knows that to be able to kill fish in such 

 waters is no mean accomplishment. Streams like these 

 are decidedly the best schools for novices, because every 

 faculty is called into active and constant practice, for 



