68 STRETCHERS AND DROPPERS. 



tussle or two with a good fish. My flies cannot 

 be well dressed for less than double the above 

 price. 



In trout and grayling fishing I would always 

 have three flies on my casting-line at the same 

 time. The tail-fly or stretcher should be the 

 best, and when possible the largest; the first 

 dropper, a good general fly, and the second drop- 

 per, or third fly, a most attractive hackle. The 

 stretcher should be an imitation of the fly in 

 season. It is the fly which ought to fall first on 

 the water ; if you cast well, it floats most naturally 

 in it, and a fish hooked by it is more easily played 

 and killed than with either of the droppers. 

 When you find that fish are rising at one sort of 

 fly only that your stretcher, or one or other of 

 your droppers, is the sole attraction, remove your 

 useless flies, and make your sole attraction a triple 

 one. You will often find several sorts of natural 

 flies on the water simultaneously : observe which 

 of them the fish are feeding upon, and produce 

 your imitations if you have them in your book. 

 If not, make them if you can. 



It is a fact that hackles and palmers are the 

 most killing flies on many of the rivers in Eng- 

 land, whilst on others winged flies are the best. 

 Hackles, except a very few, do not kill well in 

 Ireland. Winged flies are the best there. Palmers 

 are not good flies, generally speaking, in Ireland ; 



