STREAM-FISHING 93 



assumption seems scarcely justified. Since in up-stream 

 fishing the trout approaches the fly fi-om below — that is, 

 from down stream — or from the side, and having taken it 

 or failed to take it, returns whence he came, it is as likely 

 as not that when the angler strikes, the head of the fish 

 is towards him. He really knows nothing of the direc- 

 tion in which it is disposed and therefore cannot tell 

 how, as regards it, the strike takes effect. So far as it 

 concerns the down-stream fisher, the assumption prob- 

 ably contains an element of reason. In the circum- 

 stances in which the fly is presented to him, the fish 

 makes his presence felt before he turns in his descent, 

 and as he seizes the lure from behind, it must occasion- 

 ally be snatched away from him ere it is well within his 

 lips. As, however, the angler has no slack line to re- 

 cover and the act of striking is immediately effective, 

 he possibly secures an average number of the fish he 

 raises. But it is all the merest conjecture. We are 

 without data on which to base a reasonable judgment. 

 I am not aware that any angler has compiled statistics 

 affording a comparison between the rival systems. My 

 own experience, so far as, in the absence of records, it 

 may be relied on, is that the proportion of fish missed 

 to those hooked is no greater in down-stream fishing 

 than in fishing up. 



