Concerning Flies 229 



SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON " HACKLED " 

 FLIES. 



When dealing with the fishing of 

 "Waters" with the wet fly, had I been 

 asked to name one particular class more 

 suitable than any other for this purpose, I 

 should certainly have named hackled flies, 

 the " Spiders " of Stewart's book. I do 

 not mean for a moment that in doing so I 

 should have necessarily excluded winged flies 

 altogether. But, if I were asked to choose 

 between the exclusive use of "winged" or 

 "hackled" flies, I should then give my 

 vote in favour of wingless artificials (call 

 them how you like) for the fishing of tribu- 

 tary streams that is, Waters. They are 

 very often deadly, even in large rivers, and, 

 I need hardly say, are particularly suitable 

 for the fishing of burns, but in the fishing 

 of Scottish "Waters," from the time of 

 Stewart, down to the present day, these 

 "hackled" flies "take a lot of beating." 

 Even before Stewart wrote his book, the 



