28 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



you let him run to the end of your line, as 

 more than one writer puts it, that is, get your 

 rod and line in one straight line, he will break 

 you to a certainty. Now it is clear that, if a 

 fish runs straight away from you, you must, 

 if you wish to keep a full curve on your rod and 

 use its flexibility to the utmost, carry it back 

 over your shoulder more and more the further 

 the fish is away, so that finally you are in the 

 attitude so commonly figured in old prints, your 

 rod thrown right back over your shoulder, and 

 the butt pointing towards the fish. This 

 position, "shewing the fish the butt,' as it is 

 called, was strangely misunderstood in reel- 

 using days. It was thought that the object of 

 this ungainly attitude was to put the greatest 

 possible strain on a fish, and Francis Francis 

 is at some pains to show that this is not what 

 it does. Nor has he any difficulty in doing so, 

 for so far from putting the greatest you are 

 putting the least strain on the fish, and the 

 greatest on the rod. You are using the rod to 

 its utmost pliability, and indeed making a 

 demand on it which no modern stiff rod could 

 answer. Ronalds, who advocates a flexible rod 

 as long as fifteen feet, puts the matter right. 

 The beginner who has hooked a fish should, he 

 says, get his rod up over his shoulder, and 

 present the butt end to the fish, for thus he can 

 make best use of the rod's pliability. If the 

 reader will think it out, he will see that no 

 better rule can be given than to point the butt 



