TROUT FLY-FISHING IN AMERICA 



The successful wet-fly fisherman as such must neces- 

 sarily cast and play his fly in such a manner as to deceive 

 and attract the fish, and he must also be able to strike 

 and play his fish, otherwise no results could possibly 

 follow. 



This, however, does not mean that the angler must be 

 an expert caster, an expert fisher of the fly, an expert 

 striker of the fish, or an expert player of a hooked fish, but 

 it does mean most decidedly that he is good in all of these 

 branches of wet-fly fishing, and when he is a consistent 

 performer at catching game fish he is entitled to be called 

 an expert fly fisherman. 



The truth of what I have said can be verified at almost 

 any place during the open season where wet-fly anglers 

 congregate on either lake or stream. 



There are really two classes of wet-fly anglers, the 

 greater and the lesser experts. Those of the former class 

 are the anglers who can catch game fish consistently on 

 many different kinds of water, and the lesser experts are 

 the anglers who can only catch fish on certain kinds of 

 water. There are comparatively few anglers in the first 

 class, while there are quite a number in the second and 

 lesser class. 



Although the dry and the wet-fly angler cannot prop- 

 erly be judged from the same standpoint, nevertheless the 

 principle involved in determining what constitutes an ex- 

 pert fly fisherman in either case must be the same. 



Dry-fly anglers are somewhat prone to consider the 



202 



