50 AN APOLOGY FOR FISHING 



For fly-fishing, rightly engaged in, it is not too 

 much to claim a very high position indeed among 

 the sports of the field ; many of the qualities on 

 which it makes demands being the same which are 

 required for the other forms of sport, while it also 

 implies some which are not called for in those 

 others, except, perhaps, in that of deer-stalking. 



To be a perfectly good fisherman a man requires 

 strength, agility, spirit, quickness and accuracy of 

 eye, a neat hand, a nimble foot, considerable ability 

 as a tactician, presence of mind, and coolness, 

 coupled with the power of keeping his wits always 

 about him. Nor is this all ; a fisherman must 

 have, besides, certain moral qualifications of an 

 exalted nature. He must be possessed of patience, 

 perseverance, and good temper ; and, in addition to 

 all this, he must thoroughly well understand his 

 business in all its more intricate technicalities. 

 Let us proceed to consider some of the points here 

 insisted on a little in detail. 



In fishing for trout with an artificial fly — a 

 branch of sport to which, with the reader's permis- 

 sion, we will in this ' Apology ' entirely confine 

 ourselves — it is necessary, as it is in a great many 

 other things, that a man should thoroughly under- 

 stand what it is that he is doing — how, in short, 

 the case stands. It stands thus. He sees before 



