MAVY-FLY FISHING. 369 
other. It should also be noted that with this cast a fly can be 
placed under overhanging boughs, or up under a bridge, where 
it would be an utter impossibility to do so by any other means, 
If the beginner finds that, without being himself able to 
specify the cause of his non-success, he is not progressing, and 
if he cannot get a friend who can cast to tell him of his faults, 
as a general rule, and in all styles of casting, he may safely infer 
that he is getting into the habit of either using too much force, 
or of casting and returning too quickly ; very possibly he may 
be falling into both these errors. 
Wherever possible throw up stream, and let the fly come 
down to you ; the fish when feeding are invariably poised with 
their heads looking up stream waiting for the flies to float down 
to them, so that when fishing up you not only present the fly 
to the fish in the more natural manner, but being below them 
have a better chance of not being seen yourself. As the fly comes 
down to you, it is necessary to draw in slowly by hand a part 
of the slack line, otherwise this slack line on the water is likely 
to retard the effect of striking so much as to make you miss 
the fish. The line must not be drawn in too rapidly, or a de- 
cided pull or drag on the fly will be caused. Where it is im- 
possible to fish up or across, the only plan is to d7i/¢ from 
above or cast down stream ; just as the fly is descending check 
it so that it falls short of the full cast, and, lowering the hand, 
then let it float down to and beyond the fish without drag 
before recovering. It should, however, be remarked that when 
drifting every angler must expect to miss a great proportion of 
the fish he rises, and, further, he must not be surprised to find 
that the first cast over a rising fish will in the majority of in- 
stances either rise him or set him down altogether. 
There arein every reach of every stream places where the dry- 
fly fisherman may confidently expect success with a rising fish, 
and others where he may with equal confidence predict failure. 
As a fundamental principle, the artificial fly should float down 
to a feeding trout in precisely the same direction and at pre- 
cisely the same pace as the natural one. This is merely tanta- 
I. BB 
