PUT ON THE DRAG BEFORE GOING DOWN. 19 



It is admitted, that during mid-summer, when 

 the weather is calm, the sky clear, and the river 

 low, and when what is called fine fishing is neces- 

 sary, such imitation as is possible, both of the ap- 

 pearance and motions of the natural fly, may 

 frequently be tried with advantage ; in which case 

 the tackle may be allowed to drop gently down the 

 stream : but it more usually happens, from the 

 style of fishing practised during the vernal and 

 autumnal states of a river, that the hook is not de- 

 ceptive from its appearing like a winged fly which 

 has fallen from its native element, but from its 

 motion and aspect resembling that of some aquatic 

 insect. When the end of the line first falls on the 

 surface of the water, the fish may be deceived by 

 the idea of a natural fly ; and it is on that account 

 that the angler should throw his tackle lightly and 

 with accuracy, and it is on that account also that 

 we would advise the more frequent throwing of the 

 line : but so soon as the practitioner begins to de- 

 scribe his semicircle across the river, the character 

 of the lure is changed, and the trout then seizes the 

 bait, not as a drowning insect, but as a creature in- 

 habiting its own element, which had ventured too 

 far from the protection of the shallow shore or the 

 sedgy bank. That this is the case, a subsidiary 

 argument may also be drawn from the fact, that in 

 most rivers the greater number and the finest fish 

 are generally killed by the drag-fly, which, during 

 the process of angling, swims an inch or two under 

 water. It is sometimes even advisable so to angle 

 as to convert into drags all the flies in use. 



