MAY-FLYFISHING. 369 



other. It should also be noted that with this cast a fly can be 

 placed under overhanging boughs, or up under a bridge, where 

 it would be an utter impossibility to do so by any other means. 



If the beginner finds that, without being himself able to 

 specify the cause of his non-success, he is not progressing, and 

 if he cannot get a friend who can cast to tell him of his faults, 

 as a general rule, and in all styles of casting, he may safely infer 

 that he is getting into the habit of either using too much force, 

 or of casting and returning too quickly ; very possibly he may 

 be falling into both these errors. 



Wherever possible throw up stream, and let the fly come 

 down to you ; the fish when feeding are invariably poised with 

 their heads looking up stream waiting for the flies to float down 

 to them, so that when fishing up you not only present the fly 

 to the fish in the more natural manner, but being below them 

 have a better chance of not being seen yourself. As the fly comes 

 down to you, it is necessary to draw in slowly by hand a part 

 of the slack line, otherwise this slack line on the water is likely 

 to retard the effect of striking so much as to make you miss 

 the fish. The line must not be drawn in too rapidly, or a de- 

 cided pull or drag on the fly will be caused. Where it is im- 

 possible to fish up or across, the only plan is to drift from 

 above or cast down stream ; just as the fly is descending check 

 it so that it falls short of the full cast, and, lowering the hand, 

 then let it float dow^n to and beyond the fish without drag 

 before recovering. It should, however, be remarked that when 

 drifting every angler must expect to miss a great proportion of 

 the fish he rises, and, further, he must not be surprised to find 

 that the first cast over a rising fish will in the majority of in- 

 stances either rise him or set him down altogether. 



There are in every reach of every stream places where the dry- 

 fly fisherman may confidently expect success with a rising fish, 

 and others where he may with equal confidence predict failure. 

 As a fundamental principle, the artificial fly should float down 

 to a feeding trout in precisely the same direction and at pre- 

 cisely the same pace as the natural one. This is merely tanta- 



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