TROUT FLY-FISHING IN AMERICA 



fly to the exclusion of all other elements of fly-fishing will 

 find himself sadly unsuccessful in catching game fish. 



These remarks are not in any sense directed against 

 the fly-caster or any one who desires to excel in some one 

 branch of fly-fishing, because, as I have stated in a previ- 

 ous chapter, casting is an important factor in wet-fly fish- 

 ing. My intention is to call anglers' attention to the fact 

 that in many cases the term expert is not properly and 

 correctly applied by writers on the subject. 



I have little patience with writers who seek to throw 

 a halo around the art of fly-fishing and who try to impress 

 upon the beginner at fly-fishing that there are many al- 

 most insurmountable obstacles that stand in the way of 

 his ever becoming a good fly fisherman unless he is an ex- 

 pert caster of the fly. 



This is because it is unfair in the first place, and be- 

 cause so far as wet-fly fishing is concerned it is untrue in 

 the second place. 



There is nothing analogous between being a good 

 caster and a good fly fisherman, and there never can be 

 so far as wet-fly fishing is concerned. 



Success in wet-fly fishing means the catching of game 

 fish wth the artificial fly, irrespective of what element or 

 elements of fly-fishing may or may not be perfected to the 

 expert point by the angler. 



If an angler can catch game fish with the wet-fly and 

 he can do so consistently year after year, it stamps him as 

 a successful fly fisherman, but it does not stamp him as 

 a good or expert fly-caster. 



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