Vlll PREFACE. 



It is not possible to fish with tlie dry 

 fly in all waters, or in all parts of any 

 water, and the complete fly fisherman is 

 he who can fish both wet and dry. 



But, some one may say, why trouble 

 about the exact size and colour of your 

 fly when it is presented to the fish as a 

 tumbled mass of wet clinging feathers and 

 silk or mohair dragged across or even 

 against the stream ? It cannot be denied 

 that thus presented it is accepted, and 

 accepted luith discrimination. How, then, 

 is this to be accounted for ? The answer 

 is to be found by a careful investigation of 

 the way in which so many of the flies 

 imitated by the angler are bred. The 

 caddis or the pupa is on the bottom, or 

 attached to the under side of a root or 

 weed ; then, at the moment of hatching, 

 the winged insect, involved in the trans- 

 parent covering which protects it while 

 rising to the surface, detaches itself from 

 its resting-place and launches forth on 

 its upward journey. This is the critical 



