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Maxims and Hints for an Angler 1 Miseries of Fishing 25 Maxims and Hints for a Chess Player 55 Maxims and Hints on Shooting and Other Matters 81
"You see the ways the fisherman doth take "To catch the fish; what engines doth he make? "Behold! how he engageth all his wits, "Also his snares, lines, angles, hooks, and nets: "Yet fish there be, that neither hook nor line, "Nor snare, nor net, nor engine can make thine; "They must be groped for, and be tickled too, "Or they will not be catch'd, whate'er you do." JOHN BUNYAN
[Loosely thrown out, in order to provoke contradiction, and elicit truth from the expert.]
ARE there any fish in the river to which you are going?
Having settled the above question in the affirmative, get some person who knows the water to show you whereabout the fish usually lie; and when he shows them to you, do not show yourself to them.
Comparatively coarse fishing will succeed better when you are not seen by the fish, than the finest when they see you.
Do not imagine that, because a fish does not instantly dart off on first seeing you, he is the less aware of your presence; he almost always on such occasions ceases to feed, and pays you the compliment of devoting his whole attention to you, whilst he is preparing for a start whenever the apprehended danger becomes sufficiently imminent.
By wading when the sun does not shine, you may walk in the river within eighteen or twenty yards below a fish, which would be immediately driven away by your walking on the bank on either side, though at a greater distance from him.
When you are fishing with the natural May-fly, it is as well to wait for a passing cloud, as to drive away the fish by putting your fly to him in the glare of the sunshine, when he will not take it.
If you pass your fly neatly and well three times over a trout, and he refuses it, do not wait any longer for him: you may be sure that he has seen the line of invitation which you have sent over the water to him, and does not intend to come.