DRY FLY TACKLE AND EQUIPMENT. u 



flies. I take it that no one who fishes with the floating fly nowadays 

 clings to the use of flies mounted upon gut. Eyed flies have no doubt 

 replaced them for all time. The very drying of your fly is too severe 

 upon the heads of gut-mounted flies. Eyed hooks have, however, had to 

 fight their way to the front, so prejudiced are we all, and I can picture to 

 myself now a prominent legislator, a great angler and the author of one of 

 the best sporting books published of late, standing by me on Test side, 

 on a meadow near Longparish, his cap literally covered with artificial 

 flies attached to strands of gut — a most extraordinary sight. The fish 

 were most unkind, taking greedily some kind of small black insect, or 

 fisherman's curse. We had offered them every kind of midge fly or black 

 gnat we could think of, with scant success. Our friend, in gazing for the 

 twentieth time at his fly-bedecked cap, saw a group of black ants, on gut, 

 amongst others. The first one put on not only procured a rise, but 

 hooked the fish ; one run, and he was gone, the fly remaining in his 

 mouth. So with the next. In vain we soaked the gut ; each fly met with 

 the same result — it was at once taken and the fish was at once lost. 

 The gut was absolutely rotten, and that pattern of ant was apparently the 

 only medicine. Our friend fairly danced upon the bank in rage and 

 disappointment. And it was all he could do to restrain himself from 

 dancing on his rod and from using very unparliamentary language. I 

 believe that even he is a convert to eyed flies now. 



Whether the flies should have turned up or turned down eyes is a 

 matter of controversy. Personally, I prefer the latter. In any case, the 

 eye should not be too small, or much mental anguish will result. It 

 is needless to say that they should be well tempered and with sound 

 barbs. They should be tested in a piece of soft wood. 



Have a reserve box of flies, made in compartments, so that you can 

 replenish from time to time the little box you carry with you. This 

 pocket box may be quite small. I like one three inches square and one 

 inch deep, with rounded corners, and with bars of cork across it inside. 

 It will carry all you need. My pliers I always attach to one of the 

 buttons of my coat, as otherwise I am always misplacing them. Nothing 

 beats Major Turle's Knot as an attachment of the gut collar to the fly. 



If you should be fishing the evening rise at a time when it is 

 difficult to thread the eye of a fly, even with the expenditure of many 



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