MODES OF ANGLING 37 



ment not keep pace with his sanguine expectations. A 

 cast-line, with gut and flies, should be just the length 

 of the rod, and no longer ; and all first efforts in the art 

 should he confined to the employment of a very few 

 yards more in making casts upon the water ; and as the 

 pupil progresses in adroitness and skill, he can, of course, 

 lengthen his line accordingly. 



There is a great comfort and convenience connected 

 with the use of a single-handed fly-rod. In small rivers, 

 particularly if the banks are lined with brushwood, and 

 the water is reedy, and the bottom full of roots of trees, 

 etc., the angler should learn the habit of what may be 

 called " chucking " his fly into those parts of the stream 

 which run under bushes, and form strong ripples and 

 currents beneath overhanging boughs. In such situa- 

 tions the trout are generally numerous, and of the first 

 size and quality. We have seen many good two-handed 

 fly-fishers who lost ranges of the finest water on account 

 of not being able to fish narrow and woody streams. 

 In rivers which run through a bed scooped out by 

 mountain torrents, two or three times as broad as the 

 quantity of water which they commonly supply, the 

 fly-fisher has plenty of elbow-room; and can use a long 

 rod and line, which require both hands, with good effect ; 

 but in smaller waters, such as those just described, there 

 is nothing like a single-handed rod ; it gives you greater 

 power over the stream, and enables you, as it were, to 

 pick fish out of places that the double-handed artist 

 must invariably pass by. 



To measure distances by the eye with accuracy is an 

 essential part of the fly-fisher's profession. This can 

 only be acquired by close attention to the subject, and 

 constant practice. No written or verbal rules of direc- 

 tion can possibly reach it ; and yet anyone may attain 

 a high degree of excellence in this respect, if he devote 

 himself patiently to the subject ; and one or two seasons' 

 free range with the fly will enable a man to hit his 

 point to a hair's-breadth in every cast of the line. 



In the progress of the art of angling many dogmatic 

 rules are laid down. Amongst these, that which re- 



