DETERMINING THE FLY TO USE 123 



Black Gnat, the Blue Quill, and Olive Quill are being 

 taken on the water. But there are no flies visible, 

 and the trout are not rising. How, then, are you going 

 to determine the correct fly to use ? It is by no 

 means a bad plan although not usually adopted in 

 order to save time, to place one of these flies, say the 

 Olive Quill, on the end of your cast ; then, 3 feet up the 

 cast, with a very short end, attach the Blue Quill, 

 and again, 3 feet further up, a Black Gnat. Oil the 

 cast and each fly, and treat this cast of three flies as 

 you would a single dry fly cast, and fish up-stream. 

 I have often, by adopting this method and fishing the 

 likely spots, discovered a fly which the fish will take, 

 and by discarding the other two and fishing dry fly 

 with the remaining one, have saved much time and 

 caught fish which I should not otherwise have 

 taken. 



Even when the fish are rising, it is often difficult 

 to find out the definite fly which they are taking, 

 and when, for experimental purposes, you may, as 

 above advised, be fishing with three dry flies and 

 happen to catch a rising fish, examine the food in the 

 upper part of his gullet. The chances are that the 

 sub-imago form of some water insect will be found 

 there, as well as the pupae of the same insect, and if 

 the fly on which you have taken this fish does not 

 secure you trout when it is fished as a single dry fly, 

 try a specimen of the sub-imago found in the fish's 

 gullet. 



