ARTIFICIAL FLIES 51 



When a flood is subsiding or the river is 

 rising, rather larger flies should be used than 

 when the water is at its normal level. In 

 low, clear water, such as one often experi- 

 ences in June and July, quite small flies on 

 the finest gut will always rise more fish than 

 larger sizes. It should be remembered, how- 

 ever, that flies dressed on the smallest-sized 

 hooks, such as 00 and 0, take a very shallow 

 hold, and though they may rise more trout 

 than flies dressed on larger sizes, such as 1 

 and 2, more fish will be secured by the latter, 

 as they bite deeper. It pays, therefore, to 

 use the largest-sized hooks consistent with 

 the state of the water and the mood of the 

 fish. In the hands of an expert angler, the 

 larger-sized hooks do wonderful execution, 

 even in the clearest water, but then the 

 dressing on them is always kept to the smallest 

 possible dimensions. When trout are taking 

 really freely, the flies are often torn to pieces 

 by the teeth of the fish. So keen are they 

 that I have known them take a spider fly, 

 and take it ravenously, when every particle 

 of feather had been stripped from it, and 

 nothing but the bare silk dressing of the body 

 remained. 



Wet flies are dressed on either sneck bend 

 or round bend hooks. In the sneck hook. 



