370 SALMON AND TROUT. 



mount to saying that the object of a scientific dry-fly fisher 

 should be to so manoeuvre his artificial fly as to make it as far 

 as possible copy in its movements, as it should in its appearance, 

 those of the natural insect. The natural insect emerges from 

 the nymph-envelope on the surface of the stream, and as far as 

 it drifts down on the water is carried along at the same speed 

 and in the same direction as the run in which it happens to 

 be when first clear of the shuck. Under no condition is it 

 very likely for a shy fish like a trout to take a fly deviating from 

 this natural course, and the more a river is fished the shyer the 

 trout become, and the less likely they are to forgive a mistake 

 in this respect. 



Wherever the run of the water has the effect of causing the 

 artificial fly to drag, there the fisherman is likely to find himself 

 foiled in all his efforts to rise the fish, and the place should, as 

 a rule, be avoided. On the other hand, wherever the run of 

 the water causes the artificial fly to follow exactly the course 

 taken by the natural, there a rising fish is likely to be tempted 

 by a good imitation delicately and accurately placed. As a 

 general rule, wherever the action of the water on the line 

 causes the artificial fly to deviate in pace or direction from that 

 which the natural insect would follow in a similar position, a 

 wake is produced behind the fly, and this is technically termed 

 dragging. 



There are three conditions under which dragging may take 

 place. A fly may travel either faster or slower than the natural 

 insect, or in a different direction from it. 



The fly travels faster than the natural insect in a place where 

 the angler has to throw across the stream, and where the most 

 rapid portion of the current is between him and the spot where 

 the fish is feeding. The fly then drags because the action of 

 the stream on the line causes the fly to travel at the pace of 

 this the more rapid stream, instead of at the rate of the portion 

 of the river where the fly is floating. It further has the ten- 

 dency of dragging the artificial fly more or less across the 

 normal direction of the stream. This form of dragging can be 



