352 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



cutting known as the side plan. The meaning of this 



should be quite clear to the 

 How to side a deep operator before he commences 

 stretch. the work. It is in effect that 



as far as a man can reach 

 with his hand-scythe the weeds against either bank 

 are cut quite clean right down to the bed of the 

 stream. Over the remainder of the stream the weeds 

 are kept well topped, but are not cut down to the 

 bottom of the river. 



It must be understood that it is not intended to 

 advise the cutting away at the bank and leaving the 

 weeds elsewhere uncut. Some admirers of the system 

 who have failed to grasp its real meaning have carried 

 out what they deemed to be the principle of it to an 

 exaggerated extent. True, they have cut out the 

 sides, but they have allowed a forest of tangled luxuri- 

 ant vegetation to stand up above the surface of the 

 water down the centre of the stream, and thus made 

 the deep reaches most difficult, if not impossible, for 

 the fisherman. Besides these, gross and luxuriant 

 weed-beds are not favourite places for the trout. 

 When in the autumn they die down and decompose, 

 a deep bed of black foetid mud is deposited on the 

 bottom of the river, and if not removed by panning 

 out or sent down the river to foul one's neighbour's 

 water below this will infallibly leave the stretch in such 

 a state that no self-respecting trout will take up their 

 positions on it. The rushes and sedges at the margin 

 of the river should be cut as little as possible. Of 



