No doubt we dry £3^-111011 are too mucli wedded to our system, 

 because trout will often take a suuk fly when tlie river is 

 perfectly dead, and when the superficial observer would 

 declare that there was not a fish in the water. AVe all 

 know this to be true, and yet Ave go on casting dry flies that 

 the trout refuse to look at ! The real explanation of this 

 weakness — for it is a weakness — on the part of the dry fly- 

 men is to be found in the fact that when once the art ot 

 floating a fly is acquired, down-stream fishing ceases to have 

 any attractions. But the " chuck-and-chance-it " man 

 occasionally has the laugh on his side, and this was the case 

 last Saturday, when two of our professors of the " fine art'^ 

 went home with empty baskets, and a " canny Scot " wiped 

 their eye with a brace and a half of good fish ! 



The catching of trout with a floating- artificial fly, cast 

 up stream, is a comparatively modern art, and by common 

 consent it is admitted to be alike the most artistic and 

 scientific method of angling. There can be no doubt that 

 occasionalh' a floating fly was iised by our grandfathers^ 

 because some of the old writers speak of allo^^ing a fly to 

 float down stream under bushes as being a very deadly 

 method ; but this was called " shade fishing," and those old 

 anglers who practised it would never have believed it 

 possible to catch trout in a blazing sunshine, on a calm sur- 

 face, as smooth and brilliant as a mirror. That is what 

 the modern drv flv-men now do, using* g-ossamer g'ut and 

 microscopic flies ; and I have killed many a lusty trout in 

 the Dale that dear old Isaac Walton loved so well, under 

 these conditions. Although my dry fly-fisliing has 

 extended over the past quarter of a century, I am by nO' 

 means disposed to speak slightingly of those brothers of the 

 craft who fish with sunk flies down stream. It is the 

 fashion amongst some men to call them the "chuck-and- 

 chance-it " school of anglers, but on the fast rivers of the 

 North they would " wipe the eye '" of these scoffers. 



For dry fly work a short, light rod is necessary, and the 

 lighter the rod — consistent with rigidity — the more delicate 

 will be the casting and the greater will be the chances of 

 sport. The best part of my own fishing is done with a ten- 



