of fishing we call DAPING, DABBING, or DIBBING ;1 wherein you are always to have your line flying before you up or down the river, as the wind serves, and to angle as near as you can to the bank of the same side whereon you stand, though where you see a fish rise near you, you may guide your quick fly over him, whether in the middle, or on the contrary side; and if you are pretty well out of sight, either by kneeling, or the interposition of a bank or bush, you may almost be sure to raise, and take him too, if it be presently done; the fish will, otherwise, peradventure be removed to some other place, if it be in the still deeps, where he is always in motion, and roving up and down to look for prey, though, in a stream, you may always almost, especially if there be a good stone near, find him in the same place. Your line ought in this case to be three good hairs next the hook; both by reason you are, in this kind of angling, to expect the biggest fish, and also that, wanting length to give him line after he is struck, you must be forced to tug for it: to which I will also add, that not an inch of your line being to be suffered to touch the water in dibbing, it may be allowed to be the stronger. I should now give you a description of those flies, their shape and colour; and, then, give you an account of their breeding; and withal, shew you how to keep and use them but shall defer them to their proper place and season.

Viat. In earnest, Sir, you discourse very rationally of this affair, and I am glad to find myself mistaken in you; for, in plain truth, I did not expect so much from you.

Pisc. Nay, Sir, I can tell you a great deal more than this and will conceal nothing from you. But I must now to the second way of Angling at the top; which is

(1) See, in Chap. VII. May, Art. 11. directions how to bait with the Greendrake Яy.

Published by T. Gorden, 107, St. Martins Pane, Charing Cross,

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 chuse 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 strait, 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

(1) For Fishing with two or more flies: see note on p. 298.

handle his rod, and to cast it, is no manner of incumbrance, 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 ours are, deserves not the name of an Angler.2

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, that would otherwise circle the water, and fright away the fish.

3

In casting your line, do it always before you, and so

(1) An artist may easily throw twelve yards of line, with one hand; and with two, he may as easily throw eighteen.

(2) See the direction for your rod and line, in the notes on Chap. XXI. Part I.

(3) Till you are a proficient, every throw will go near to cost you a hook: therefore practise for some time without one. Hawkins.

Management of the line, when Fishing either with one fly, or two or more flies. When you have fixed your rod properly with your winch thereon, [see p. 114, n. describing Winch and Rings,] and brought your line from it through the rings of your rod, loop on to it, by the strongest end, your foot-length; which should be about three yards and a half long; made of good, strong, single silk-worm gut, well tied, and the knots neatly whipped, running a (very little) finer towards the bottom-eud, at which place there must be, a neatly-whipped