Getting Out the Fly Books 



the maker ever saw in nature; and if, as 

 some maintain, it is taken by the salmon 

 because it has seen something like it, that 

 something was certainly not a natural fly. 

 The salmon-fly is usually cast as accu- 

 rately and delicately as may be, of course 

 across the current, and swings in a 

 curve down to the fish, half or wholly 

 submerged. Coming in such a manner, 

 it may possibly be taken for a larva, hardly 

 for a fly, whatever be its color. What is 

 true of the salmon-fly is at least equally 

 true of all large flies which are intended to 

 be worked "sink and draw." While this 

 method cannot in strictness be considered 

 fly-fishing, there can be no doubt of its 

 success. Trout are often so wild as to have 

 no suspicion of guile, when they will seize 

 any object which attracts their attention. 

 If the water is big, turbulent, or turbid, 

 only a large and showy lure will be visible. 

 There were some pools in the Nepigon in 

 its less frequented days, where the best 

 success attended, not salmon-flies even, but 

 bass-flies of extraordinary gaudiness, and 

 of a size to merit Foster's name of "the 

 American half-ounce." What they took 

 the fly for, if for anything in particular, 

 may be a matter of doubt; probably sim- 

 ply as a prey which might furnish food. 

 17 



