TROUT FLY-FISHING IN AMERICA 



"Standing below a likely bit of water, after soaking a whirling 

 dun so thoroughly that it would sink immediately after striking 

 the water, I would cover carefully all water within casting dis- 

 tance. 



"The stream was so clear that usually I could see the fly com- 

 ing down stream a few inches below the surface. 



"After all promising water had been fished with care, the sod- 

 den fly was removed and a fly exactly like it, but dry, substituted. 



"The floating fly seemed to have the effect of arousing the trout 

 to action at once. During the week I estimate that there was an 

 average of ten rises to the dry-fly to every one to the same fly wet. 



"Mr. Dimock will probably agree with me in this estimate." 



Mr. Dimock and Mr. Gill are both well-known an- 

 glers, and anything either of these gentlemen says about 

 fly-fishing is worthy of great consideration at all times. 



In this instance, however, I must take exception to 

 what Mr. Gill has to say about giving the dry-fly and the 

 wet "an impartial tryout," but no exception is taken to 

 the estimate of ten to one, because a wet-fly fisherman of 

 experience would expect to see just such a result follow 

 under the conditions of the tryout. 



Thinking perhaps I did not fully realize what the 

 word impartial meant, I referred to "The Century" and 

 found impartial to mean, "Not partial, not favor- 

 ing one more than another; unprejudiced, equitable; 

 just." 



Having this meaning in mind, I ask Mr. Gill if he 

 really considers it an impartial tryout of the two fly-fish- 

 ing methods to have the fly that is fished wet so thoroughly 

 soaked "that it would sink immediately after striking the 

 water"? 



68 



