TACTICAL 183 



net was in readiness to receive his one pound seven ounces. 

 The other fish on the shallow seemed quite undisturbed, 

 and without changing my position I realized another brace 

 in the next half-hour, and not one of the leash made a 

 bolt for the shelter of the carrier or attempted to weed. 



PICKING IT OFF: A VERY MINOR TACTIC. 



It is a very minor one. 



If it had occurred to me as having any novelty in it, 

 I should no doubt have given it a corner in a former volume 

 dedicated to my friend the Dry-Fly Fisherman. But in 

 sooth, though I had practised the device for years, it was 

 not until the summer of 19 10, after the book was on the 

 market, that anyone ever noticed it. Since then, from 

 time to time, men with whom I have been fishing have 

 expressed their surprise that a plan so simple and so 

 efficacious never occurred to them, and it therefore struck 

 me that it might be worth while to present it for what it 

 is worth to the community of fishers with the fly. I do so 

 with the full expectation of being told that there is no 

 novelty in it, and that it has been practised for years. I 

 can only say that I evolved it myself, and I never saw 

 anyone use the plan before I did. 



I put down its evolution to Mr. Walter D. Coggeshall, 

 known to members of the Fly- Fishers' Club as the Member 

 for America and a magician in dressing casting lines. 



In 1904 he gave me a priceless casting line, with a curse 

 to follow me to the grave and blight future generations of 

 my name, if any, if I dared to use vegetable or mineral oil or 

 animal fat to make the line float. Having, therefore, pity 

 upon future generations, I did not use vegetable or mineral 

 oil or animal fat upon the line. Having also pity on my 

 ten-foot six-ounce Leonard, I desired to save it as much 

 as possible from the strain of picking up and lifting a 



