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CHAPTER XIII. 



LIVE FLY AND BEETLE FISHING. 



D I BEING or daping with the natural fly is an 

 easy art, and is, moreover, a very productive 

 and, we may add, a very seductive one, when reasonably 

 practised upon a densely wooded stream. It is often 

 useful as a means of weeding out old fish, whose 

 cannibal propensities go far to exterminate their own 

 species, as well as their immediate neighbours and 

 relatives. There is small scope for skill in the use of 

 the live fly, as employed under the above circum- 

 stances, as the foliage lining the banks shields the 

 rodster's person from view, whilst the struggling lure 

 accomplishes the rest. The rod and line must 

 necessarily be 'both short and stout for the general 

 comfort of fishing. An ordinary fly rod with short top 

 answers admirably for the purpose, whilst the three or 

 four feet of gut bottom line should be strong, round, 

 and clear, without a faulty place or blemish. De- 

 plorable loss often ensues from carelessness in looking 

 over the tackle before commencing operations. It 

 needs everto be remembered that the weakest place in a 

 line, be it of what substance it may, decides its precise 

 degree of strength throughout, as when the testing 

 time arrives, the thing breaks at that point, despite its 



