CHAPTER VI. 



HOW, WHEN, AND WHERE, TO FISH. 



"Give me mine angle; we'll to the river there. 



***** "I will betray 

 "Tawny finned fish ; my bended hooks shall pierce 

 "Their slimy jaws." — Shakspere. 



JjEING provided with the right lure, be it fly or spin- 

 ning bait, there is still the question how to use it. Sup- 

 pose we consider the spinning bait first, in continuation 

 of our last chapter. How should-we spin, with the stream, 

 against the stream, or across the stream? Those who 

 advocate spinning with the stream, or drawing your bait 

 in the same direction as the river is flowing, do so on 

 the same ground as fly fishermen, namely that all fish 

 lie habitually with their heads up stream, and that con- 

 sequently you bring your bait down to them, into their 

 mouths as they say, instead of pulling it away from them 

 up stream. But the cases are by no means parallel. 

 What is natural in one case is unnatural in the other, 

 and the secret of good fishing is so closely to imitate 

 nature, that the fish shall not be able to distinguish your 

 bait from its ordinary food. Though the fly lights, or 

 mounting from the bottom sits, on the water's surface, 

 and is carried unresistingly down the stream, the be- 

 haviour of the small fish which you have to imitate is 



