54 TROUT-FISHING FOR THE BEGINNER 



shoulder only. Such a stiff hackle serves the 

 dual purpose of acting as a buffer between 

 the fly and the water when the former alights 

 and enabling the fly to float. 



Dry flies are tied on eyed hooks, as they 

 are then less hampered in action than hooks 

 to gut. There are several patterns of eyed 

 hooks, straight- eyed, up-turned, and down- 

 turned, but whichever pattern is used, there 

 is a tendency in the gut point near the fly to 

 curve in the form of a miniature arch. This 

 curve in the gut acts as a warning to the fish, 

 and in nine cases out of ten the trout refuses 

 the fly. In order to get rid of this arch, the 

 gut point should be kept thoroughly soaked, 

 and strict attention must be paid to the 

 amount and length of the stiff hackle on the 

 hook. An over-hackled dry fly causes the 

 eye of the hook to stand some distance above 

 the surface of the water. By reducing the 

 amount of hackle as well as its length to the 

 smallest proportions compatible with the 

 necessary buoyancy of the fly, the undesir- 

 able gut kink will be abolished, provided that 

 the gut point is kept well soaked, and so soft 

 and pliable. 



In practice, dry fly fishing consists in pre- 

 senting a single floating fly to a trout which 

 you see rising. . . . When using a cast of 



