120 THE CORRECT FLY TO USE 



The student cannot do better than obtain the standard 

 books on fly fishing, and if there is one I can specially 

 recommend it is " Fishing," edited by Horace C. 

 Hutchinson, and published by Country Life. 



This literature will not only prove most interesting, 

 but by reading it the learner will acquire a general 

 idea of the natural flies which are recommended by 

 these writers. 



The fly fisherman should always, before going down 

 to his stream, consult the Field and the Fishing 

 Gazette, and in their weekly reports from the different 

 rivers he should find what flies are killing at the latest 

 moment. He must make sure that he has among his 

 other patterns at least a dozen of each sort of flies 

 mentioned by these papers as being used and as doing 

 execution on the water he proposes to fish, or on some 

 of the neighbouring streams. When he reaches his 

 river he should, as soon as possible, discover which 

 of these flies are on the water and being taken by the 

 fish, and the result then rests with him. 



It is just here that the great usefulness of a small, 

 light, and collapsible butterfly-net must be impressed 

 on the student ; no article after the rod, the line and 

 flies, the reel and the fishing-net, is more important 

 to the dry fly fisherman. It is often impossible, and 

 always difficult, to catch the elusive winged insects 

 which are floating by on the water or flying rapidly 

 past without such a net. With a net, however, little 

 or no time is lost, and fly after fly can be easily and 

 quickly netted and examined, and then compared 



