We can think of no way of giving oral or written instruction in fly fishing. The purpose is to get the line out straight, clear and lightly as far as possible, and skill in doing so is only to be acquired with practice. Something can be learned by watching a better angler than yourself standing and casting by your side. The motion is a peculiar one, and the best advice we can give the reader about it is, to tell him to send his line out with a jerk. This is contrary to every opinion and direction contained in the books, and will at first, lead to the snapping off of many a fly, but it is the only way of casting the line as it should be cast. Every other plan will work after a fashion if there is a breeze to favor and help, but on calm water and with no wind, it is only the man that can twitch out his line that can get it out at all. We should say lift it with a jerk, swing it to the full length behind you; upon doing this thoroughly, depends the question whether your fly will stay on the line or not, and then send it forward with a quick motion that winds up with a jerk of the wrist. This jerk communicates its-self to the tip, and gives that peculiar springy motion that will be noticed with all first-class fly fishermen. Never try to help your rod by a long, slow awkward sweep of the arm. It won't answer - the wrist must do the work. Do not let your rod go too far back, it should never reach more than an angle of forty-five degrees. And now, reader, if these directions don't suit you, you need not follow them, they are poor enough at best, and you may work out your own fishing salvation in your own way. If they do, and you will courageously snap off about fifty flies, we think at the end of that time you can probably cast a line fifty feet long, and drop your tail fly in a lily pad three times in five casts, in which case you can begin to take trout.

Fish have sharp eyes, and in trying to allure them to their death we must do our best to keep out of their sight. They know a man as their natural enemy by instinct. In approaching a stream, get behind a bush, or stump, or rock. We have before now crawled on our knees within reach of a hole in which we knew that a peculiarly large and desirable trout had taken up his abode. In fishing from a boat, always sit down and have the seats arranged to face towards the stern. Omit no precautions that will tend to lull the suspicions of the trout, which years of persecution have rendered most acute. Never pound on the bottom of the boat, or jar the bank of the creek. Talking will do no harm, but rattling oars or jumping from one log to another, or splashing in the water, or even treading heavily on the ground will alarm the fish and often make them dart about in terror. When once alarmed, trout will never bite. It is worse than useless to show them bait or fly, and only teaches them to connect in their minds the noise and the fishing.