FLY-FISHING. 303 
a better acquaintance with the habits of the trout ; 
and we believe that a mere novice would, in a large 
water, catch more trout by fishing down than up, 
because the latter requires more nicety in casting. 
But to attain anything like eminence in fly-fishing, 
the angler must fish up, and all beginners should 
persevere in it, even though they meet with little suc- 
cess at first, and they will be amply rewarded for their 
trouble. 
The only circumstances in which fishing down 
has the advantage of fishing up, is when the water is 
so dark or deep that the fish would not see, or if they 
did see, would not have time to seize the flies, unless 
they moved at a slower rate than the stream. We 
think that this rarely applies to angling for river 
trout, as when inclined to feed upon flies they are 
generally on the outlook for them, but it does apply 
to salmon and sea-trout fishing. Both these fish lie 
in strong deep water, and as they are not accustomed 
to feed upon flies, they are not on the outlook for 
them ; so that if the salmon-fisher were to throw his 
flies up stream, they would come down at such a rate 
that the salmon would never see them. Besides 
which, it is obvious that whatever salmon take the 
angler’s fly for, they cannot take it for anything they 
have seen before, and therefore there is no reason for 
supposing they can detect anything unnatural in its 
motion. 
