HOW FLIES ARE FASTENED TO LINES.

21

the latter length will be found the best average one for fly-fishing with a single-handed rod. your second year use three flies, placing them from eighteen inches to two feet apart. The length of gut to each dropper need not exceed two inches. The usual way of attaching flies is by looping them on. The only fly I loop is the stretcher. My droppers having a knot at the end of the gut, I fasten in between the sliding-knots by which I tie together the links of gut that form the casting-line. I prefer these sliding-knots to the whipped ones, because they are lighter, and enable me to attach and detach my knotted droppers more quickly than if they were looped. The knots will be found quite strong enough if you make them double; or even single, provided you do not cut off the gut too closely to them. I cannot clearly explain in writing how these sliding-knots are made, but any fishing-tackle maker will show you.

I have now prepared you for fishing with three flies on three yards of gut casting-line. That line should be thicker towards the hand, and dwindle away gradually to the end farthest from you. If the extreme end of your line should be the thickest part of it, common sense will tell you that when you cast it there must ensue a more rapid and heavy descent upon the water than when that end of your line is the finest part

22

SHAPE OF FLY-FISHING LINES.

of it. The gradual tapering of the line causes it to stretch out with the cast without kinking or coiling, and to fall lightly and straightly on the water. Reel-lines (the best sorts are platted of half hair and half good silk) are twisted in the shape of a spindle or a porcupine's quill-thick in the middle and tapering off in nice gradation at each end. A line so shaped has this advantage-when you have nearly worn out one end, you can have recourse to the other next the winch, which is comparatively fresh, having been wound first on the reel, and hitherto in great part protected from the action of air and water. The used part, if not too much used, is to be now wound next the winch. Your gut casting-line must be formed of links each finer than the other, but not with marked disproportion. The thickest link must be that next to the reel-line, and the thinnest that farthest from it-that to which your stretcher or tail-fly is to be looped. Each of the intermediate links of gut must be finer than the other, round, and clear-coloured before dyed, and without a flaw..

FISHING A STREAM AND HUMOURING YOUR FLIES. --Touching the practice of angling, there are many moot points. One maintains this, another maintains that, and a third differs from both. In doing anything, there is but a right way and a wrong; but common sense has not followers

HOW TO FISH A STREAM.

23

enough to give the right a majority. An impartial president casting up the votes for the wrong must too often, I fear, pronounce, 'The Ayes have it.' Opinions are divided as to how a stream is to be fly-fished.

Some say, Begin

at the head of a stream and fish it downwards with the current. Others say, By no means: --commence at the tail of a stream and fish upwards to its head. Who is to decide, when adhuc sub judice lis est? Will the litigants leave it to my arbitration? If they do, my decision is, as a general rule, to be swerved from on rare contingency-first fly-fish a stream upwards from tail to head, and then, if circumstances make you think it advisable after giving yourself and the water a rest, try down, with, if necessary, a change of fly or flies, from head to tail. By this means you avoid disputed extremes, and, treading the best of all paths, medio tutissimus ibis.

You are approaching a stream to fish it. Keep as far as possible at first from the edge of the bank you stand on, and throw somewhat to your left side on to that part of the water running next you to your left, if you are fishing from the left bank, and vice versa. Float your flies down, humouring them nattily on the surface of the water, or ever so little beneath it, obliquely to your left, bringing them round at a civil distance below you, and close under the bank.

24

HUMOURING THE FLIES.

Repeat your cast, moving one step higher up, still keeping as far as you can from the water-side. When you have fished that nearer side sufficiently, approach the bank, coming down again to the tail-end of the stream, throwing as far as you can across it, humouring your flies as in the first instance, not drawing them directly across to you, but floating them lightly down the stream, until your line begins to grow taut, and the stream has a drag upon it, when you must repeat your cast, a little higher up the stream than before. Pursue this plan until you have fished the stream as widely from you as you can, and up to its head formation. I well know this method will be deemed by many too stringent. Never mind: when you are out of your apprenticeship, you can act more freely.

you

The objections to fishing a stream in the above way are, that by so doing you expose your back and side too much to the fish above you, and lose too much time and ground by this backward process. In my opinion, these objections are not fatal. If you keep a proper distance from the side of the stream, you will obviate the first objection. The second I think of little moment; for sometimes you cannot fish too carefully or too slowly, inch by inch, especially if the stream be a choice spot, and fish upon the rise; whilst, under contrary circumstances, your progress may be

CONSEQUENCES OF FISHING DOWN STREAM. 25

more rapid, hurrying over chanceless parts, and fishing for luck quickly right a-head, hastening on to more favourable localities.

There is but one main objection to commencing at the head of a stream, and I do not see how it can be well got over. You hook a fish at the head of a stream, and must generally play him downwards. What is the consequence? Is it not plain that you must disturb many fish below you, over which you have not as yet thrown your flies? I think it is evident; and if I did not think so, I should be decidedly in favour of downstream fishing, as being the most rapid, pleasant, and apparently the most natural way. At the head of a stream you hook a large and game fish. He darts across it, down it, through it in every direction, at one time splashing on the surface of the water, at another doggedly struggling beneath it, or rushing through it, as if an otter were at his tail. His struggles are at any rate extraordinary, and think you not instinct tells other fish, perhaps shoal companions, that there is something wrong? Surely they see and hear— not usual sights and sounds, but somewhat alarming ones, because they are not customary. May we not infer that they dread an enemy at hand -that they see a fellow fish in danger, and are cowed into skulking for safety, at least for a time? All anglers will acknowledge something like this;