CHAPTER IX 



STRIKING AND HANDLING A HOOKED FISH 



We have now arrived at the point when all the 

 conditions previously laid down have been satis- 

 factorily accomplished, and the trout or grayling 

 has been so thoroughly deceived by the imitation 

 fly and the lifelike nature of its course down the 

 stream that it has come up to it open-mouthed, and 

 the disturbance on the surface leads us to believe 

 that it has just sucked in the conglomeration of 

 feathers and hook constituting the artificial fly. 

 What now remains to be done is to drive the hook 

 over the barb in the fish's mouth so that we can play 

 it, exhaust it, and bring it safely to land in the net. 

 There is no occasion here to debate the vexed 



question of whether to strike 

 Striking. or not to strike. Since the 



days when " Dry- Fly Fishing 

 in Theory and Practice " was written, it has been 

 conceded by all the best- known authorities that 

 whether the action of forcing the hook-point into 

 the mouth of the fish is called striking or designated 

 by some other name it is, in effect, tightening on the 

 fish and fixing the hook securely into one of its lips, 

 the sides of its jaws, or its tongue. 



