n8 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



practice, but when once mastered the angler will find it of the 

 greatest advantage, and he will be able to drop his fly just where 

 he chooses. For this casting a stiff rod is decidedly requisite, 

 or the angler will not be able to get his line quickly and cleanly 

 enough off the surface when about to make his cast, for he 

 does not raise it directly off the water, as in ordinary casting, 

 but rather pulls it through it, and if the rod gave too much 

 it would be brought so far round before the line was got off 

 the water that the fly would catch in the bank. 



I have now told the young fly-fisher how to suit himself 

 with rod and tackle and how to fish a stream, and I will add a 

 few general directions which have been gathered by long 

 experience, watchfulness, and by thinking nothing which 

 occurs on the water, or in connection with it, unworthy of 

 notice or consideration. And, firstly, as to the weather when 

 the angler should go fly-fishing, and these remarks very much 

 apply to all other kinds of fishing. Most of us are aware of the 

 old rhyme : 



When the wind blows from the west, 

 It blows the hook to the fish's nest ; 

 When the wind blows from the south, 

 It blows the hook to the fish's mouth ; 

 When from the north and east it blows, 

 Seldom the angler fishing goes. 



My dear friends and pupils, don't believe it : if you possess 

 a copy of this bit of ancient doggerel, let it be anything but a 

 rule for your conduct. You may have sport in all winds and 

 in all weathers, or you may not ; as long as the wind is not 

 too heavy and is up-stream, be sure that you have the best 

 wind that can blow. I have had some of the best days I ever 

 had in my life with a north or east wind, and some of the worst 

 with a south or west one. Some will say, choose a cloudy day 

 with the wind here or there, and some a rainy day with the 

 wind nowhere ; some say, never fish in thundery weather, 

 whereas I have caught fish again and again, and known them 

 caught, in all possible sorts of weather, even with the thunder 

 cracking all round nay, directly overhead. I do not believe 

 there is any rule whatever that can be relied upon. I have 

 had first-rate sport in a snow-storm ere now. The influences 

 which cause fish to feed, or the reverse, are as much a mystery 

 to us as they were to our forefathers. Fishes' appetites are 

 doubtless somewhat like our own, they feed best when they 

 are hungry, and when they can do so with the least fear. Fish 



