PREFACE - IN witing this book the author has endeavoured to confine his text entirely to subjects that he thinks will interest every fisherman and be of assistance to those who, owing to lack of opportunity, are neither experienced nor skilful. Even when he has ventured to express his opinion on controversial subjects he hopes that his views will cause offence to none. The average fisherman may not want to know how to build a rod but he certainly wishes to know how to select one and how to use it. He may not want to make his own flies-- -but he certainly desires to know what flies to get and when and how to use them. He does not want to make his fishing line-what he wants is to know how to extend it and how to preserve its usefulness. If it be desirable and necessary to obtain help in order to become a proficient fly fisherman, the author admits the great advantages of personal tuition when it is obtainable. But, on the other hand, he is confident that, by explaining in simple language the science of casting and fishing with the fly or minnow, in similar terms to those which he uses when teaching the student personally, he can help the reader to acquire, by careful attention, a success which will well repay him for his trouble. When one recalls the pleasure and assistance which have been derived from the literature devoted to fly fishing, the pleasant reminiscences which have been revived, and the extensive fields of sport which have thus been thrown open, it would indeed be ungrateful to deny the efficacy of writ ten instructions on this delightful science, but the author cannot too strongly deprecate the assumption that this book is written with the view of attempting to teach experienced fishermen. It is written especially for those who are thinking of taking up the sport, and if the author should be successful in imparting to these the skill which has afforded him so many happy hours, and if, in addition, some of his ideas and methods may happen to interest his brother fishermen, he will, in some measure, repay the debt which he owes to a kindly Provi- dence for giving him so many delightful opportunities of fishing. No kiIl is quite equal to that of the first salmon no thrill can exceed that which runs from the fishermans hands to his brain as he braces his muscles to resist the first rush of a fresh-run salmon, feels the long downward strain on his rod, and bears the screech of the reel as his first fish plunges down-stream in its initial rush for safety no tension is more delightful than the first twenty minutes spent with a clean-run salmon and no satisfaction, so far as the sport is concerned, can possibly exceed that felt by him as the gleaming silver sides of his first fish emerge from the water securely held on his gillies gaff. The vigour of the sport, the grandeur of the scenery, and the revivifying atmosphere of his surroundings, offer a tonic to the system far more pleasant and of infinitely greater value than any the pharmacopeia is capable of producing...