DRY-FLY FISHING 57 



Quite sharp streams too will often fish well with the 

 dry fly in the long evenings, and on one occasion it 

 was again the Female Black Gnat which accounted 

 for some difficult Wharfe trout that refused all wet 

 flies, however presented. It is indeed during the evening 

 rise that the dry fly will be found most generally 

 useful on Northern streams. 



That fickle evening rise that so many anglers 

 impatiently wait for all day, only to return home 

 beaten and disappointed at dark ! Not that the fish 

 do not rise, for at times the water literally boils with 

 them, but their discrimination is truly wonderful. 

 How many an angler on occasions during all that mad 

 rise has never killed a fish, or not until the sun had 

 dropped well behind the horizon and dusk was upon 

 him. Then perhaps he has creeled four or five before 

 the rise ceased, but has returned home dissatisfied, 

 realizing that he had been thoroughly beaten, and 

 that it was the failing light, and not his skill, knowledge 

 or ingenuity, that saved him from a blank. 



An autopsy will often reveal on such occasions 

 spinners, gnats and sedge flies ; and yet the most 

 lightly and carefully made imitations, however deftly 

 thrown, utterly fail as wet flies to attract the fish. 



At times like these a Black Gnat, Ginger and Red 

 Spinners No. 35 and No. 36, fished dry, and later, as 

 the sun drops behind the horizon, a Silver Sedge may 

 be recommended. 



