50 TROUT-FISHING FOR THE BEGINNER 



4. The hackle. 



In comparing a natural with an artificial 

 fly, probably the first thing the beginner 

 will notice is that the former possesses much 

 fewer legs than are represented by the feather 

 hackle on the latter. There is a reason for 

 this if the artificial had but three or four 

 single whisks of feather, it would be apt to 

 fall on the water with a splash, no matter 

 how carefully the angler made his cast. The 

 extra hackle in the artificial acts as a buffer 

 between the fly and the water, enabling the 

 fly to alight softly and in a natural manner. 



5. Wet flies (or flies to gut) : The gut and 



hook. 



Wet flies, otherwise known as flies to gut, 

 or in other words flies which are fished beneath 

 the surface, are tied on short lengths of gut. 

 This should be as fine as is consistent with 

 the skill of the angler and the average size 

 of the trout he expects to catch. Fine gut 

 is quite as important as a neat and lightly 

 tied fly, for it is much less visible and dis- 

 turbing to trout than coarse gut. As the 

 vision of a trout is curtailed by even a small 

 additional volume of water, it is customary 

 to use flies of various sizes, according to the 

 height and volume of the stream at the time. 



