TROUT ANGLING. 127 



a third part of the force requisite to lift the line clear 

 off the surface, as is necessary when making another 

 throw. Indeed, in casting generally for either sal- 

 mon or trout, the angler should never snatch his line 

 quickly from the water, but give it first a gentle pull, 

 and let the lifting it be a second and brisker action ; 

 as a large trout, or sometimes a salmon, may be fol- 

 lowing the fly, and may readily, at that particular 

 instant, be just seizing it ; and if you lift it with 

 foolish force, the fish is struck off from the gut in his 



own method, if by it he can generally angle successfully. There are 

 many points that successful anglers differ keenly upon, which, in our 

 opinion, but simply and reasonably proves that there are more ways 

 than one of capturing salmon or trout. To strike, as most anglers know, 

 is to make a quick turn of the wrist a sort of slight twitch very 

 like the movement made by the wrist when a person opens or 

 shuts a lock quickly with a key. This movement causes the hook 

 to give a slight but sudden jerk, which secures the fish. If pro- 

 perly managed the fish will not be struck off, because the wet 

 line yields as well as the top of the rod to any gentle movement of 

 this kind. The mode of striking we here describe must be under- 

 stood to refer to trout angling. As regards striking, in salmon 

 angling, many first-rate anglers do not strike when they feel the 

 fish, but merely make a sudden steady hold ; while other equally 

 good anglers strike, some of them firmly, the moment they feel the 

 fish take. When learning salmon angling we had a "blowing up" 

 more than once for not striking when a salmon happened to touch 

 our hook and get off unscathed, and we have also repeatedly brought 

 censure upon our unfortunate head for striking when a salmon rose 

 and touched the fly, and disappeared as we struck. These unplea- 

 sant lectures (for it is something dreadful and a little odd, perhaps 

 to lose a fish and " catch it" at the same time) we received from 

 old experienced anglers, who simply differed in their mode of hooking 

 a fish. Most anglers strike, we believe, when fishing with a very 

 large hook. [EDR. ] 



