80 How to use the Landing-net. 



ing up the fish, line in hand, and lifting him by it, or 

 attempting to do so, when snap goes the stinting, and 

 the fish takes himself off, to the said worthy's no small 

 chagrin and mortification. Then follows such a lecture 

 on the uselessness of the Landing-net that I almost 

 question the party's sanity. Even Mr. Stoddart, great 

 authority as he is esteemed in the north, seems not to 

 have known how properly to net a fish, as he calls that 

 most useful instrument, a Landing-net, an " inconvenient 

 convenience ! " 



He, like all others who cannot use it properly, is 

 greatly to be pitied ; for they lose much of the pleasure 

 derived from fine single-hair Fly-fishing, at least we 

 in these fine English waters would fare but badly 

 without it. Rather walk with your fish than give him 

 line, for you lose command of him by so doing; and 

 always after you have hooked one keep your line tight, 

 until you have jockeyed him into the net. 



In order to describe the proper use of the Landing-net 

 we will suppose that you have hooked a fish while stand- 

 ing in the water. First, then, run the shaft of your 

 Landing-net forward until you are holding it in your left 

 hand, in the same way as you hold your rod in the right, 

 and at the same distance from the butt end, keeping the 

 net head just in the water before you. Do not poke it at 

 the fish to set him away, but keep it there while you draw 

 up your fish with your rod and line, (having first wound 

 the latter up to the proper length,) and pull him steadily 

 towards the net, and, as soon as he is over it, raise it out 

 of the water with him in it ; run your left hand up the 

 shaft so that you can reach the fish with your right ; put 

 your rod under your right arm ; take the shaft of your 

 net under your left arm ; pass the fish to your left hand, 

 holding him round the shoulders with your thumb in his 

 gills ; take the shank of your fly-hook close to the bend 



