Casting and Striking. 39 



panion is, as we said in last chapter, to confine 

 yourself to your own water. If the left-hand 

 cast is the one proper to your end of the boat, 

 cast as much to your right hand as you can 

 without infringing on your neighbour's share of 

 the water : all the water to your left hand is 

 of course yours. The same remarks apply vice 

 versa. Never stop casting so long as you are on 

 fishable ground, for you know not the moment 

 a good fish may rise. Certain it is that unless 

 you keep your flies constantly going, you cannot 

 expect to have the same basket as the angler 

 who does. Keep your eyes on your flies in a 

 general way, and do not let your attention be 

 distracted so long as they are in the water. 

 Every angler has experienced the annoyance of 

 missing fish when looking elsewhere for a single 

 moment either at another boat, or at a fish 

 " rising to itself," or at the sky, or at something 

 else. When the eyes were turned to the point 

 from which they should not have been diverted, 

 they were just in time to see the water swirl, 

 and the hand gave a futile strike at what 

 had disappeared a second before. Perhaps we 

 should have said at the beginning of this chap- 

 ter to place implicit faith in the flies with 



