26

TRY BOTH WAYS, AND JUDGE.

but then, some of them argue that the effects of the disturbance are only temporary, and not so lasting as those which arise from the fish seeing you, as you fish a stream upwards. You can avoid their seeing you, but you cannot, unless you whip a fish out of the water the instant he is hooked, or coax him against the current, prevent the more or less disturbance he will cause according to his strength and unflinching struggles, his weakness or his want of game. It is argued, you can remedy it, by not fishing for some time after you have been playing a fish, or by removing to some other spot, and coming back again in due time to the place you had disturbed. This plan will cause you to lose time at all events, and, may be, the very nick of it during which fish are rising freely. I have generally succeeded best by fishing a stream from tail to head. Excellent anglers have told me they did best by acting differently. I deny no man's word, but I advise the student to try both ways, and then judge for himself.

In what precise shape artificial flies floating on the water, or just beneath it, present themselves to the fish, I cannot truly tell. They certainly cannot present themselves in the exact living forms of natural insects, but their appearance must be something similar. If I were to guess, I should say that the artificial flies for the common

APPEARANCE OF FLIES IN THE WATER. 27

trout, grayling, and some of the carp tribe, present the appearance of drowning, or drowned natural flies; or of living insects struggling on, or underneath the water. I do not think this surmise fanciful. At any rate, the fly-fisher should endeavour to present his artificial baits to the fish as deceptively as possible, namely, by giving them as natural an appearance as may be. He must cause them to drop lightly on the water, because the natural fly does so; he must cause them to swim down as near the surface as he can, because the natural fly moves upon the surface of the water, and he must impart motion to his fliesa species of fluttering, generally speaking, being the best. All this is comprehended by the expression 'humouring' one's flies.* To do it, the moment your flies alight upon the water, hold up your rod, so that the drop-fly next to it may appear skimming the surface; the other two, if properly proportioned and attached to the castingline, being ever so little under water. If you allow your upper dropper to be under water, all the flies below that dropper will be sunk too deeply to appear living insects to the fish, and therefore any motion you may give them will be useless. They then can only be taken by the fish

* I am not here alluding to salmon, the flies for which must be worked' in the water after a peculiar fashion, to be described hereafter in the chapter on that fish.

28

STRIKING AND HOOKING A FISH.

for dead flies. When you keep your last dropper on the surface of the water, impart to it the slightest skipping motion, by a tremulous wristshake of the rod, and the flies that are just under water will receive the most natural motion you can give them. Never drag your flies straight across the water towards you, and never, unless they be salmon flies, work them against the current. A small trout may, perchance, rise at them when so worked, but seldom or never a large one.

6

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STRIKING AND HOOKING A FISH. - In cricket there are fast and slow bowlers, which is a proof that one way is thought as good, if not better than another. In striking a fish there are fast and slow strikers, each of them, of course, maintaining the superiority of his own method. Well, if there were no difference of opinion, sad would be the monotony of life, the old proverb, Quot homines, tot sententiæ,' having become obsolete. The truth is, there are as many fish missed by striking too rapidly, as by striking too slowly, and a fault either way is bad. I think, however, that he who strikes too quickly labours under a greater disadvantage than he who strikes too slowly. Striking too strongly is a shocking fault, and, as it is generally joined with the defect of striking too quickly, double mischief ensues. You either miss your fish, or whip it out of the water awk

STRIKING GENTLY RECOMMENDED.

29

wardly, or injure your tackle, if the fish be a heavy one. This strong rapid way of striking shows the absence of that delicacy of action and management without which you can never become an accomplished fly-fisher.

The moment you see and then feel a rise, you must strike gently from the wrist, by a slight, sharp jerk of it backwards. As a general rule, strike sideways a little, and not straight towards you-to the right most commonly: but you must be guided by a guess as to which way the fish is about to turn on seizing your fly. If you fancy he is going to turn round to his left, you must strike at him neatly towards your right: if you think him on the turn from left to right, strike to your left. By pursuing this plan, you will avoid the probability of chucking the fly clean out of the fish's mouth, or of pricking him only, and you will very likely hook him, perhaps through and through, on either the right or left side of the mouth. A fish very frequently takes your fly under water, and then, feeling the rise, be somewhat quick, yet strike as gently as possible;--quick, lest the fish reject the fly; gentle, for he is already almost hooked. Those who are for striking slowly, act on the notion that fish generally book themselves, and that the slow stroke is quite sufficient to affix the hook firmly. Fish do sometimes hook themsleves, 'tis true, but it is only by

30

THE CRITICAL MOMENT.

exception, and not by rule. The fly-fisher of sharp eye and quick hand will often have an advantage over the purblind and the too slow. Dimness of vision and obtuseness of touch mar frequently the benefits of experience, and the young sharp eye and lively hand will successfully compete with the skill of old practitioners in whom the two attributes last mentioned are fading away.

On this part of our subject, I find, on the whole, some excellent advice and remarks in Blaine's 'Encyclopædia of Rural Sports,'* 2nd edit., p. 1178. He says, "Striking the fish is to the full as important a part of the rod and line management as any. Many strike too slowly, many too quickly, and a correct few strike at the critical moment. The first lose their object, the second often lose both the object and their bait, while the third secure all. When a fish seizes the natural fly, his jaws find no resistance; he consequently keeps them closed until deglutition follows; and thus it is that in natural fly-fishing, it is not found so necessary to be instantaneous in striking; but with the artificial fly, the instant the fish seizes it, he is apt to find the deception, either by its want of taste, or by feeling the point of the hook, or by discovering the unyielding nature of the material

* Published by Messrs. Longman and Co., Paternoster Row, 2nd edit. 1852.