the Top, which is with an artificial fly, which also I will shew you how to make before I have done; but first shall acquaint you, that with this you are to angle with a line longer by a yard and a half, or sometimes two yards, than your rod; and with both this, and the other, in a still day, in the streams, in a breeze that curls the water in the still deeps, where (excepting in May and June, that the best Trouts will lie in shallow streams to watch for prey, and even then too) you are like to hit the best fish.

For the length of your rod, you are always to be governed by the breadth of the river you shall choose to angle at; and for a Trout-river, one of five or six yards long is commonly enough, and longer, though never so neatly and artificially made, it ought not to be, if you intend to fish at ease, and if otherwise, where lies the sport?

Of these, the best that ever I saw are made in Yorkshire, which are all of one piece; that is to say of several, six, eight, ten, or twelve pieces, so neatly pieced, and tied together with fine thread below, and silk above, as to make it taper, like a switch, and to ply with a true bent to your hand; and these too are light, being made of fir-wood, for two or three lengths, nearest to the hand, and of other wood nearer to the top, that a man might very easily manage the longest of them that ever I saw, with one hand; and these, when you have given over Angling for a season, being taken to pieces,

and laid up in some dry place, may afterwards be set together again in their former postures, and will be as straight, sound, and good, as the first hour they were made, and being laid in oil and colour, according to your Master Walton's direction, will last many years.

The length of your line, to a man that knows how to handle his rod, and to cast it, is no manner of encumbrance, excepting in woody places, and in landing of a fish, which every one that can afford to Angle for pleasure, has somebody to do for him, and the length of line is a mighty advantage to the fishing at distance; and to fish fine, and far off, is the first and principal rule for Trout Angling.

Your line in this case should never be less, nor ever exceed two hairs next to the hook, for one,— though some I know will pretend to more art than their fellows,—is indeed too few, the least accident, with the finest hand, being sufficient to break it; but he that cannot kill a Trout of twenty inches long with two, in a river clear of wood and weeds, as this and some others of our's are, deserves not the name of an Angler.

Now to have your whole line as it ought to be, two of the first lengths, nearest the hook, should be of two hairs a-piece; the next three lengths above them of three, the next three above them of four, and so of five and six, and seven, to the very top: by which means your rod and tackle will in a

manner be taper from your very hand to your hook ; your line will fall much better and straighter, and cast your fly to any certain place to which the hand and eye shall direct it, with less weight and violence, than would otherwise circle the water, and fright away the fish.

In casting your line, do it always before you, and so that your fly may first fall upon the water, and as little of your line with it as is possible; though if the wind be stiff, you will then of necessity be compelled to drown a good part of your line to keep your fly in the water and in casting your fly, you must aim at the further, or nearer bank, as the wind serves your turn; which also will be with and against you on the same side, several times in an hour, as the river winds in it's course, and you will be forced to angle up and down by turns accordingly; but are to endeavour, as much as you can, to have the wind evermore on your back, and always be sure to stand as far off the bank, as your length will give you leave when you throw to the contrary side; though when the wind will not permit you so to do, and that you are constrained to angle on the same side whereon you stand, you must then stand on the very brink of the river, and cast your fly at the utmost length of your rod and line, up or down the river as the gale

serves.

It only remains, touching your line, to enquire whether your two hairs, next to the hook, are

better twisted, or open; and for that, I should declare that I think the open way the better, because it makes less shew in the water, but that I have found an inconvenience, or two, or three, that have made me almost weary of that way; of which one is, that without dispute, they are not so strong open as twisted; another, that they are not easily to be fastened of so exact an equal length in the arming, that the one will not cause the other to bag, by which means a man has but one hair, upon the matter, to trust to; and the last is, that these loose flying hairs are not only more apt to catch upon every twig or bent they meet with, but moreover the hook, in falling upon the water, will very often rebound, and fly back betwixt the hairs, and there stick, which, in a rough water especially, is not presently to be discerned by the Angler; so as the point of the hook shall stand reversed; by which means your fly swims backward, makes a much greater circle in the water, and till taken home to you and set right, will never raise any fish; or if it should, I am sure, but by a very extraordinary chance, can hit none.

Having done with both these ways of fishing at the top, the length of your rod, and line and all, I am next to teach you how to make a fly; and afterwards, of what dubbing you are to make the several flies I shall hereafter name to you.

In making a fly then, which is not a Hackle, or Palmer-fly; (for of those, and their several kinds,

we shall have occasion to speak every Month in the Year) you are first to hold your hook fast betwixt the fore-finger and thumb of your left hand, with the back of the shank upwards, and the point towards your finger's end; then take a strong small silk of the colour of the fly you intend to make, wax it well with wax of the same colour too, to which end you are always, by the way, to have wax of all colours about you, and draw it betwixt your finger and thumb, to the head of the shank, and then whip it twice or thrice about the bare hook, which you must know is done, both to prevent slipping, and also that the shank of the hook may not cut the hairs of your towght, which sometimes it will otherwise do: which being done, take your line and draw it likewise betwixt your finger and thumb, holding the hook so fast, as only to suffer it to pass by, until you have the knot of your towght almost to the middle of the shank of your hook, on the inside of it; then whip your silk twice or thrice about both hook and line, as hard as the strength of the silk will permit; which being done, strip the feather for the wings proportionable to the bigness of your fly, placing that side downwards, which grew uppermost before, upon the back of the hook, leaving so much only as to serve for the length of the wing of the point of the plume, lying reversed from the end of the shank upwards; then whip your silk twice or thrice about the root-end of the feather, hook, and towght;