CLASSES OF CONDITIONS 139 



by the action of the current, and in which they 

 remain for an appreciable length of time ; these are 

 generally slack places, above, below, and at both 

 sides of which the stream is faster, and into which 

 the flies are carried. The result of this is, as shown 

 in the chapter on drag, that the line will be acted on 

 by this variation of current, and thus affect the pace 

 and direction taken by the artificial fly, and make it 

 travel in some way differently from the natural insect. 

 I have shown before how the drag can be avoided, 

 and if it can be retarded until the artificial has passed 

 out of the trout's vision there is a chance of rising the 

 fish with the first cast, and even giving it a second or 

 third chance of being deceived. 



Besides the fact that so large a proportion of the 

 rising trout are located in draggy, and consequently 

 difficult places, there is another reason which should 

 impress upon the fisherman in any case, and pre- 

 eminently when on a water which is heavily fished, the 

 policy of trying to overcome the difficulty. Every 

 one of his brother anglers will be as keen on finding 

 fish feeding in easy places as himself, so that these 

 fish will day after day and hour after hour have 

 ample opportunities of studying the eccentricities 

 and peculiar behaviour of the artificial fly. Nothing 

 so surely tends to educate the trout feeding in clear 

 water as continual casting over it by fishermen of 

 different degrees of capacity and incapacity. 



Before particularizing, the reader should devote a 

 few minutes to a careful study of the shallow shown 



