THE DRY FLY. 129 



really amazing. True, it appears to have 

 reached the Test some time after the Itchen, but 

 of course it was the only method from the 

 eighties onwards. When I first fished it in 

 1890 no one dreamed of using anything else, 

 except on still water in a wind. 



In spite of these isolated exceptions, by the 

 middle of the sixties the dry fly had established 

 its long reign on south country streams. 

 Hal ford found it in full swing on the Wandle 

 in 1868. Francis writing in 1867 (A Book of 

 A ngling) ten years after the article in The Field 

 is able to say that by then it had become a 

 systematic art, and was greatly used on southern 

 streams. You should dry your fly with two or 

 three false casts. In calm, bright and still 

 weather, when a wet fly was useless, the dry fly 

 was taken most confidingly. In rough windy 

 weather, however, the wet fly was preferable. 

 He never contemplated using only the dry fly, 

 even on the Test or Itchen, and he writes a 

 sentence which, often as it has been quoted, 

 shall be quoted again, 'the judicious and perfect 

 application of dry, wet and mid water fly fish- 

 ing stamps the finished fly fisher with the hall 

 mark of efficiency/ But already there were 

 those who thought otherwise, for anglers pinned 

 their faith to the entire practice of either the 

 one or the other plan, and argued dry versus 

 wet. The battle had already begun. 



Halford is the historian of the dry fly. He 

 did for it what Stewart did for upstream fish- 



