38 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



the top of the water ; the Ruddy Fly in particu- 

 lar, our Eed Spinner, is a good fly to angle 

 with aloft on the water, and all flies are to have 

 the foundation of their bodies of cork, which 

 would make them buoyant. This is interesting, 

 for cork bodies are generally thought quite 

 modern. In June, July and August the arti- 

 ficial fly fished at the top of the water is the 

 best lure and also the one most used, which 

 shows that fly fishing was widely practised and 

 that fishing knowledge had advanced. When 

 you fish with the fly for the trout you must 

 strike when he is a foot or more from it, he 

 comes so fast. There speaks the fly fisher, 

 fishing perhaps for small fish. On the other 

 hand the Treatise, dealing chiefly with bait 

 fishing, bids you be not too hasty to smite nor 

 too late, for you must abide till you suppose that 

 the bait is fair in the mouth of the fish and then 

 abide no longer. The true rule was not given 

 till Cotton said that you should strike a small 

 fish quick but wait till a big one had turned 

 his head. All these useful bits of knowledge 

 are, so far as I know, original. Mascall is also 

 the first to describe the double hook, of which 

 he gives a figure. 



Mascall is the earliest English writer on fish 

 preservation. He inveighs against fishermen 

 who kill all through the year, including the 

 breeding season, which he puts at from mid 

 March to mid May; it is that which makes 

 fresh fish so dear and rivers so badly stocked. 



