104 How to fish with a salmon fly. Chapt. vii 



salmon flies because of their weight, and when the fly is 

 large, treble gut also is thus looped instead of single gut. 



Hooks draw very much however in India, because the 

 great heat dries the wax and shrinks the gut, and the 

 consequence is that hooks not freshly tied are very liable 

 to draw. The precaution should therefore be taken of 

 tying a knot in the gut laid against the shank of the 

 hook; when it is covered with dressing it will not show. 



Fish with the fly for Mahseer, just as you would for 

 salmon, that is, throw your fly well out, and do not draw 

 it with a steady pull through the water, but with a suc- 

 cession of little jerks, with slight pauses between, so as 

 to give it a shrimp-like motion. With every jerk the 

 feathers will be compressed against the hook, and with 

 every pause they will spread out again, thus making a 

 greater show, and giving an appearance of life to the 

 object, an appearance of kicking out for a swim. 



This is the theory I believe in salmon fishing; at any 

 rate it is the practice. Mind you do not pull too fast. 

 Many a fish will not be troubled to rise at a fly that 

 passes him in too much of a bustle. Possibly it may 

 have passed him before he has well seen it, or even if he 

 has seen it, it is in too much of a hurry for him; he is 

 not inclined to rush after it and scramble for it with his 

 next door neighbour, who is just as wide awake as he 

 is, and may, he calculates, have it before him, and send 

 him back with a curt remark, a "sold again old boy, 

 "though I'm sorry to see you're so hard up as all that." 

 But whatever may be the piscine course of reasoning 



