Fly-fishing. 361 



of the right temperature to induce the fish to seek shallow 

 feeding grounds. 



The habits of the brook trout have been carefully studied 

 by many generations of fly-fishers and naturalists, conse- 

 quently the trout-fisher knows that during the summer 

 months he will certainly find his quarry in the shallow 

 streams, slowly but surely ascending toward their spawning 

 grounds. He also knows that the big trout has a local 

 habitation under some root, or rock, or hollow bank, which 

 he holds by right of possession, and defends as bravely as 

 ever knight of old his feudal stronghold. He knows, fur- 

 thermore, that he would be considered daft to whip the 

 deepest pools of running water, or the surface of deep 

 portions of lakes or ponds. So, when the bass-fisher knows 

 the habits of the bass as well, there will be less speculation 

 as to whether or not he will rise to the fly. 



The stream should always be waded, if practicable, and 

 fished with the current, for it follows that wherever the 

 angler can wade, the water is about right in depth for fly- 

 fishing. He should cast about him in a semi-circle, he 

 being at the center and his casts being the radii, like the 

 spokes of a wheel; then, lengthening his cast, he can de- 

 scribe the arc of a larger circle, and so cover all the water 

 within reach (within forty or fifty feet), giving preference, 

 of course, to the likeliest spots, as the eddies of boulders 

 or half-submerged rocks, near logs, driftwood, shoals, bars, 

 and under overhanging bushes and hollow banks, and over 

 the shallow pools above and below rapids and riffles. 



After casting, the flies should be gently moved on the 

 surface by tremulous movements, to imitate, as nearly as 

 may be, a living fly, and then be allowed to sink several 

 inches below the surface and float away like a drowned 

 insect to the extreme length of the line. 



