4 Wet- Fly Fishing 



In war the main object is to kill or 

 disable the enemy. In fishing it is very 

 much the same thing, and the man who 

 wastes his energies drying or oiling his 

 fly, when he should be creeling trout after 

 trout, lays himself open to the criticism of 

 the French General, when he witnessed 

 the Balaklava charge. 



Bach system has its place and time. 

 On the other hand, he who would venture 

 to win fresh laurels as a wet-fly fisherman, 

 in the rivers presided over by the dry-fly 

 expert, would return to the north a sadder 

 and a wiser man. Of this, there is not the 

 shadow of a doubt, any more than that the 

 skill of the dry-fly fisherman, as practised 

 in these particular waters, is of an excep- 

 tionally high order. His flies are a much 

 closer imitation of the natural fly than 

 ours are, as a rule. The average dry-fly 

 fisherman, moreover, has a much more 

 intimate knowledge of entomology than 

 has the average wet-fly expert ; and yet, 

 notwithstanding all these advantages, I 

 declare that he but wastes his time if he 

 fishes for trout in many of our rapid rivers 

 during the cream of the fly-fishing season, 

 solely as a purist of his own "school." 

 This is my opinion, and I give it for what 



