Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1851-07-17
VOLUME VIII. NO. 20.

flies best suited to each successive month but
here golden rule presents Itself. Let the an
gler watch the insects that hover over the stream
where he seeks his sport--.let him catch one aud
initiate its size, shape, and color, and then he
has the bait at which the fish will bite most rehs
dily. The y-rod, says good authority, should
be about twelve feet three inches long, and four
teen ounces in weight. 1t must not be top.
heavy, nor must it have too much play in the
lower part, but the play should be just in pro-
portion to the grudual tapering, by which there
will be but very little spring, till after about the
third foot of its length. rod too pliabe is 90
bad fault as being too stiff. And, from being
too small, it is, of course, more liable to be
top-heavy, which nine rods in ten are the con-
sequence is, they tire the hand, and do not drop
tho Ay SO neatly. Colonel IIawker has best
described the proper mode of practising the art
He says, " In throwing fly, raise the arm well
up, without laboring with your body, send the
fly backwards by a sudden spring of the wrist.
DO not draw the fly too near, or you lose your
purchase for sending it back, and therefore re-
quire an extra sweep in the air before you can
get it into play again. If, after sending it back
you make the counter spring moment too soon
you will whip off your tail-fy, and if moment
to late, your line will fall in a slovenly manner.
The knack of catching this time is therefore
the whole art of throwing well. The motion
should be just sufficiently circular to avoid this;
but if too circular, the spring receives too much
check, and the gut will then most probably not
drop before the silk line. In a word, allow the
line no more time than Just 10 unfold before you
retreat the spring of the wrist; this must be
done, or you will hear a crack, and find you have
just whipped off your tail-fy. For this reason
l should recommend beginners to learn at first
with only a bob, or they will soon empty their
own or their friends fishing book and, at all
events, to begin learning with moderate length
of line"
Thus much for the practice of hy-fshing and
now word for our illustration of it. The an
ger here whips one of the best trout streams in
England-the old baronial residence of the Ver-
nons the "Kings of the Peak" standing in
picturesque stateliness upon neighboring emf
nence. The Wye flows at his feet-now all
quiet and placid, floating lucid mirror above
its bright pebbly bed-anon dashing over some
rocky impediment in tiny cascades, then cours-
ing swiftly through narrow, or streaming i'm
petuously down some sloping course, until it
again floats placidly, as its waters expand and
deepen From its source near Buxton, through
its course by Ashford, Bakewell, and Haddon,
until it falls into the Derwent at Towsly, it af-
fords trout worthy of all the praises Of old Isaac,
while the scenery around is rich in variety of
hill, slope, and dale, with here and there, rocks
rising in bold prominence, and giving that char
acter to the landscape which renders Derby
shire one of the most interesting and pictur.
esque of the counties of England.