THE EPHEMERA 45 



man does this by sinking his flies below the surface, 

 and dropping them down-stream toward the fish, and 

 the dry fly fisherman throws his fly on the surface of the 

 water and lets it float down to the fish. 



The food which the wet or dry fly fisherman has to 

 imitate, in order to attract and secure the trout, are 

 the various forms of water insects, either in their pupa, 

 sub-imago, or imago state. During the larval stages 

 of the Ephemeridse they pass into the pupal condition 

 of their life, which is the metamorphism, while still 

 under water, preceding their adult life. This latter is 

 known first as the sub-imago, and after as the imago or 

 perfected flying state. The transition from the pupa 

 to the sub -imago is quite naturally, though erroneously, 

 alluded to by most fishermen as " hatching." The 

 water insect is hatched when it enters the larval stage of 

 life, not when it undergoes the metamorphosis into the 

 pupa, the sub-imago, or imago state. 



There is but little difference in the appearance of an 

 Ephemera when it is bursting its mask and entering 

 into its sub-imago existence and that of the sub-imago 

 in a drowned condition, and it is therefore in these two 

 conditions that the wet fly fisherman imitates its ap- 

 pearance and presents it to the trout. But it is only 

 when this water insect is in its living and flying sub- 

 imago or imago condition that the dry fly fisherman 

 copies its appearance. Hence you will readily under- 

 stand that the latter has not only to use the more 

 perfect and lifelike form of fly, but to present it poised 

 naturally and in lifelike condition on the surface of the 



