114 SUMMER ANGLING 



winter to be a capital fly-casting ground. As 

 soon as you can lay out thirty feet straight and 

 without snapping, go to work and strive for deli- 

 cacy and correctness of aim, especially the former. 

 It is unpardonable to make a splash of your line 

 in the water when fly-fishing. 



We now come to an important point, — how to 

 fly-fish. On this subject volumes have been writ- 

 ten ; and, as Izaak Walton long ago pointed out, 

 one might as well try to teach another how to use 

 his fists in writing as to try to teach fishing in 

 the same way ; nevertheless, if the learner will let 

 this little book accompany his persistent practice, 

 he will be on the right road towards becoming a 

 proficient fly-caster and trout fisherman. 



If the stream to be fished is a tolerably broad 

 and slow-flowing one, the dry fly may be used ; 

 and this means that the fly is dried in the air by 

 several times making the motion of casting, but 

 not dropping the fly. In England, especially on 

 the clear chalk streams, this fishing is the only 

 style deemed ordinarily applicable ; but it is rarely 

 used in this country, though I frequently practise 

 it, having had at one time ten miles of the premier 

 dry-fly stream of Englaiid in my charge. And 



