29 



DRY FLY-FISHIXG— AND OTHER THINGS 



Trout fly fisliermen belong- to tAvo schools — with sub- 

 viuities — the which are popularly kno'OTi as up-stream 

 dry fly-Dien, and down-stream " chuck- and-chance-it " 

 ang'lers. I am not responsible for this classification, nor 

 am I prepared to defend it. The dry fly fishermen, I notice, 

 always sit in the front seats, and smile the smile of pitiful 

 compassion upon the members of the " chuck-and-chance- 

 it '* school 1 Moreover, the professor of the dry fly 

 delio-hteth to discourse learnedly upon ephemerte and 

 phi\i>-; nidne ; of pseudimago and imago, and other creatures 

 with terrible names, to the utter bewilderment of the wet 

 fly-men ! But my present purpose is not to discuss either 

 the scientific attainments of the one class or the hard- 

 headed obduracy of the other. Every wet fly trout fisher- 

 man that I have come across in my travels has admitted 

 his desire to learn the art of casting and fishing a dry fly 

 up-stream. I verily believe that to do this successfully is 

 the ambition of nearly every man who waelds a trout rod 

 for sport and recreation. This being so, need we feel sur- 

 prised at the flutter of excitement which was caused 

 amongst the disciples of old Isaac by the announcement 

 that by simply painting your fly Avith petroleum the said 

 fly would " float like a hay-stack." There is a vast deal 

 more to learn in dry fly-fishing- than the mere floating of 

 your fly ; but that is the initial difficulty with the noble 

 army of duffers : and the ]iaraffin " discovery " was hailed 

 by them with delight. Even some of us who claim to have 

 passed the duffer stage thought this petroleum business 

 would save us a lot of labour in the drying of sedges, big 

 wickhams and other large flies, which are resorted to in 

 those precious moments of the late evening rise. But, 

 alas I my experiments with flies painted, and flies soaked 



