192 Wet- Fly Fishing 



whatever to do with our closest imitations 

 of the natural fly, then on the water. 



I have frequently observed them going 

 for a " dropper " wholly unlike the fly which 

 was "up" at the time ; and to this hour I 

 am unable to account for their preference, 

 on such occasions. It will, therefore, be in 

 keeping with the plan of my book, if I give 

 the names of the artificial flies, and their 

 various dressings, without troubling much 

 as to what "order," "family," "genus," 

 or "species" they belong, or are supposed 

 to represent. 



I have seen (in skilled hands, of course) 

 flies doing deadly execution, the dressing of 

 which was so rustic (save that they were 

 very lightly feathered, a most important 

 point in the wet-fly) that, to adapt the 

 well-known words of Hamlet when address- 

 ing the players " You would have thought 

 some of Nature's (or Art's) journeymen had 

 made them, and not made them well, they 

 imitated the Ephemeridse so abominably." 



Looking back upon my life as a wet-fly 

 fisherman, shall I venture to affirm that I 

 should have made heavier baskets of trout 

 had I been a more scientific angler ? I 

 answer, " yes " and " no." " No " when in 

 the early spring (April and in the first half 



