JROUT FLY-FISHING IN AMERICA 



One reason why anglers have believed that light-col- 

 ored flies, such as the White Miller, the Coachman, the 

 Royal Coachman, the Parmachenee Bell, the Jenny Lind, 

 the Professor and the Yellow Miller, are the best flies to 

 use for evening fishing, without regard to conditions, is 

 because they can best see these flies when cast upon the 

 water and they assume that the trout can do likewise. 



They evidently have not stopped to consider that their 

 seeing the flies is an entirely different proposition from the 

 trout seeing them from the opposite direction. 



In the first instance the angler is looking at light flies 

 resting directly upon a dark background, while the trout 

 are looking at the same flies against a much lighter back- 

 ground which is a long distance from them. 



Remember that the nearer in color is the sky back- 

 ground, the water background and the atmospheric area 

 between them, the less distinct appear all objects to the 

 trout irrespective of color, for if the sky, the atmosphere 

 and the water were all to have the same dark color, then 

 objects on or in the water could not be seen from any di- 

 rection, no matter what their color. 



The color of flies to use at certain times under certain 

 conditions, in the main, applies equally well to both stream 

 and lake fishing ; the very light fly, however, I have found 

 to be less effective for stream fishing, but this applies to 

 fast running water. 



When the fly is fished under the surface of the water 

 four or more inches, the effective background gradually 

 changes from the sky-line to the water line as the light 



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