86 FISHING KITS AND EQUIPMENT 



is not adapted to American conditions. However, the 

 angler, merely as a matter of angling knowledge, 

 should make himself acquainted with the methods fol- 

 lowed by the dry-fly fishermen, and should know some- 

 thing about the subject of dry flies. 



Very little has been written in this country about 

 the " how " of dry-fly fishing, and for this reason, 

 and for the further one that all the large tackle deal- 

 ers now carry a stock of dry flies and the salesman will 

 doubtless try to sell you some, it may be well to de- 

 scribe as briefly as possible, and with no pretense of 

 treating the subject expertly, what the dry fly is and 

 how it should be fished. The dry fly is a floating fly 

 and is to be fished upon the surface of the water, 

 wherein it differs from the ordinary flies, which are 

 without exception " wet " flies, and to be fished more 

 or less submerged. 



The dry-fly purist casts only to a rising trout; he 

 does not fish all the water, according to the custom of 

 the wet-fly fisher, but waits until he sees the circle 

 of ripples made by a rising and feeding fish, and then 

 casts to that particular very particular, indeed 

 trout. He works up-stream, casting slightly above the 

 rise, and floating the fly down over the fish. Between 

 casts two or three " false " casts are made without al- 

 lowing the fly only one fly is used to strike the 

 water, in order to dry the fly. ParafHne oil is used 

 on the fly to make it float better and more impervious 

 to the action of the water, in dry-fly parlance, to pre- 



