124 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



fish when he has succeeded in hanging your tackle up, is to 

 get well below him, let out a longish line, sink the point of the 

 rod to the level of the water, and put a steady strain on 

 straight down-stream. The fish may perhaps for a time be 

 able to resist this strain, but patience and perseverance will 

 fetch him out at last ; even if he has gripped the weed in his 

 mouth, as fish will do, he must open his mouth eventually, 

 particularly as he has the fly in it straining and pulling at him. 

 I do not say that this plan is always successful, but it more 

 often is than not, while to attempt to pull the fish against or 

 across the weed is almost certain destruction ; a gentle sawing 

 motion may at times be used with excellent effect, if the angler 

 has reason to suppose that the weed hangs at all on the line. 

 Poking or stoning a fish out is a very uncertain remedy, and, 

 unless you can see and manage the weed very well, cutting or 

 hooking it up is unsafe, and sometimes results in cutting the 

 line. There is one thing the angler must remember in fishing 

 weedy water, and that is to eschew the use of a dropper ; for 

 if his trout takes to weed, towing a stretcher or dropper fly 

 after him, the angler's chance is of the smallest. 



As in bait-fishing so in fly-fishing, the angler should always 

 make a mental note of any good fish he may see, and take 

 careful stock of his lying-ground, and any obstruction, bushes, 

 etc. ; and study how he may best be fished for, in order that 

 he may know, without being obliged again to look at him, 

 or even to come within sight of him, how to fish when he again 

 passes his lair. If he does so, he can then approach without ex- 

 posing himself in any way to the watchful fish, knowing at the 

 same time exactly when and how to cast. In casting, he should 

 also bear in mind that the first time a fly passes over a fish is 

 far more likely to be successful than any subsequent cast 

 which he can make, and consequently he cannot use too much 

 care or caution in making it neat and effective. Let him be 

 sure, therefore, by a wide cast or two away from the fish, that 

 his line and fly are in good order, and then let him make his 

 cast with all the care and skill he is capable of ; and nine times 

 in ten the cast will be lucky. 



I always like to illustrate my advice if I can from actual 

 experience, and I will do so now. Some years ago I was 

 fishing the Duke of Rutland's water on the Lathkill : I was 

 approaching a bridge, when the keeper came up, and as we 

 were conversing, he pointed to a fish rising just at the mouth 

 of the bridge-arch. " Now, sir," said he, " there is a fish 



