148 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



time when, and place where, there are no fish rising, 

 he will find that, so long as he abstains from any 

 jerk when returning, the hook will very seldom catch 

 up. If it should be fixed in a rush or a bough, he 

 should take the line in his hand and draw gently 

 and steadily without jerk, and in the majority of 

 instances the hook will come clear. If this action 

 is unsuccessful, swaying laterally may at times clear 

 it, and if again this does not effect his purpose he 

 must draw steadily until he breaks, and as a rule 

 this will only entail the loss of the fly or, at most, 

 one or two strands of gut in addition to the fly. A 

 fly hung up in a branch of a tree, whether the hook 

 has actually fastened or not, can often be cleared 

 by holding the rod in a horizontal position and 

 drawing the line gently through the rings without 

 jerk and keeping the rod motionless. If it is hope- 

 lessly fixed a good plan is to reel up the line until 

 the point of the rod is as close as possible to the 

 fly, and then steadily draw and break, thus only 

 sacrificing the fly and a few inches of gut. 



When casting to a fish under the bank in a place 

 where there is a projection of the bank between the 

 angler and the fish, he is sometimes haunted by the 

 notion that in recovering he will infallibly get caught 

 up in the herbage, and on this subject I will quote 

 the advice given in " Dry- Fly Fishing in Theory 

 and Practice." It runs thus : " Brother anglers, will 

 you take the advice of one who has passed through 

 all these stages himself, and after some careful study 



