every rising- iisli, and blame everytliing and everybody 

 except yourself. 



M}' method of shortening- the line as the fly floats towards- 

 me is to gather in the slack on the thumb and little finger 

 of my left hand, holding the rod horizontally in front of me 

 in my i-ight hand. By this method there is always a tight 

 line, and the risk of missing- a hsh is very small indeed, if 

 he really touches the fly. Some of those writers who pro- 

 fess to teach dry fly fishing, say the line should be tightened 

 by raising the rod top, but the fly cannot be fished properly 

 more than a few feet by that obsolete method, Avhereaa 

 it can be made to "fish" close up to the angler's feet by 

 my method of using both hands. The casting of your fly 

 lightly and the keeping of a tight line are two of the most 

 vital points to be observed, and the third is to float your fly 

 down stream naturally, without the slightest " drag " on the 

 cast. If the finest gossamer gut pulls across the current 

 it makes a tiny ripple which the trout detect. That is why 

 so many men wade when fishing dry fly ; in fact it is im- 

 possible to fish a floating fly properly in some places with- 

 out wading. On a chalk stream which I haunt there is a 

 broad, shallow pool in the village which teems with trout, 

 but it is an utter waste of time to try for them from either 

 of the sides. The fish are incessantly cast over by Cockney 

 anglers, who never by any chance succeed in catching one 

 of these trout, and yet I have seen a dry-fly man, whea 

 the duffers gave up, walk in at the tail of the pool, after 

 hours of useless flogging, and kill a couple of brace without 

 moving from one spot. Of course it takes a past master 

 of the art to do that kind of thing, and it also takes a cast 

 of xsx drawn gut and a ooo midge for the purpose. Speak- 

 ing of midges, reminds me to say in this connection, that a 

 wee Badger hackle, ooo size, with silver tag, has proved the 

 most deadly fly in my hands that I have ever fished with. 

 It beats all the winged black gnats that were ever tied, and, 

 in spite of its small size, it floats splendidly when vaselined. 

 To become a successful dry fly fisherman it is necessary 

 to be something of a naturalist, because the man who knows 

 most about flies invariably kills the most fish. But there 



