AN APOLOGY FOR FISHING 55 



mation. This is arduous work, depend on it, 

 and yet, short of this, I don't know how, under 

 some circumstances, his object is to be obtained. 

 For fly-fishing, to be attended with success, is 

 not a simple operation, but, on the contrary, 

 a very complicated one, as any proceeding in- 

 volving so exceedingly intricate a ruse as this one 

 does, inevitably must be. That it is a ruse there 

 can be no sort of doubt. Unless you succeed in 

 taking this creature in, you will never succeed in 

 capturing him. This is no open onslaught, as is 

 the case in shooting and hunting. Strategy is your 

 only chance, and the more deeply laid your plot, 

 the greater is your chance of succeeding. 



There is one element in the construction of this 

 deeply-laid scheme which requires to be considered 

 with an especial carefulness. The structure of the 

 fly which is to be set before the trout on whose 

 capture we are bent is an ingredient in the transac- 

 tion the importance of which must by no means be 

 overlooked. It should of all things — and this is a 

 point not enough considered by the makers of these 

 little works of art — be one which looks well in the 

 water. There are many flies sold which appear per- 

 fectly right and natural while they remain out of 

 the water, but which, when once they are thoroughly 

 wetted, assume an entirely different and most in- 



