Trout Dry-Fly Fishing. 



75 



generally fruitless. The only 

 way to get hold of them is to fish 

 up stream with a hackle fly, letting 

 it sink slightly under the water. 

 In this fashion it will be taken 

 for a nymph and prove success- 

 ful. When the fly begins to lay 

 its eggs, the trout come to the 

 surface and lie in wait for the 



insect. When the spent gnat 

 stage is reached the fly proves an 

 easy prey. It drifts helplessly on 

 the water, once fallen, never to 

 rise again. Then trout revert to 

 deliberate habits and make little 

 more than a dimple in sucking 

 them in. During the egg-laying 

 stage, when the insect trips on 



THE AVON. 

 A Dry-fly Stream. 



giddy dancer as it lightly touches 

 the stream. The dashes made at 

 it are so sudden as to be very dis- 

 concerting to the angler, and pro- 

 vocative of hard striking, with 

 fatal results. The vigorous dash 

 of the fish is due, no doubt, to 

 the touch-and-go habit of the 



and off. the water, and is difficult 

 to catch, there is a disposition on 

 the part of trout to rise to other 

 large flies, such as alders and 

 March browns. When they de- 

 cline the imago (the May-fly in 

 its mature form) one of the other 

 large patterns frequently tempts 



