166 Fisumye ry Anmrican WATERS. 
ence from the baser sentiments of humanity; but Ihave actu- 
ally seen a man so self-willed as to fish all day without a rise, 
“because,” as he said, “ he was determined to bring the trout 
to his terms.” 
All kinds of angling call for the exercise of patience; but 
fly-fishing requires the gift of genius. Do not fish with too 
long a cast. In fishing a ereek up stream, thirty to forty-five 
feet are quite sufficient. In striking, let it be with sufficient 
force to fasten the hook in his jaw; but play your fish most 
gingerly and even tenderly, but not so as to give him slack 
line, or he will disgorge the hook. One of the principal 
causes of losing large fish is the being in too great a hurry 
to land them. If the hook is well fastened, the more deli- 
cately your fish is played the better; for snubbing a fish 
hard at all points wears an orifice in its jaw from which the 
hook falls by the mere turning of the fish. It is true that the 
trout has a good mouth to hold a hook, but the hook must 
first be well fastened to hold, and then the orifice made in 
hooking showid not be worn larger in playing, if possible to 
. 
avoid it. 
SECTION THIRD. 
KNOTS, LOOPS, AND DROPS. 
While anglers should let every trade live, and buy their 
tackle in preference to making it, yet with the make of cer- 
tain parts of tackle every amateur should be familiar. Of 
course he should know how to tie on a hook, and how to make 
a loop whose equal bearings would prevent it from chafing 
or breaking at the loop-knot. 
No.1. Bending on, or tying on a hook. The hook should be 
tied on stained silk-worm gut, round, clear, and strong ; for 
in playing a fish the tackle generally parts near the hook. 
Use scarlet silk, well waxed with a drab wax made from 
tar, like shoemaker’s wax, only light-colored. From about 
half an inch below the end of the shank, make half a dozen 
turns with the silk to the end of the shank, and place an 
