SECRETS OF THE SALMON 



we had part of the bottom white and part black, in 

 order to see the difference in appearance of wet 

 flies against the different shades. Stones and tea- 

 cups were also placed on it and show in the pic- 

 tures. In the animal kingdom the law of color 

 protection, which extends to both land and water 

 species, is that the upper part of animals where the 

 light falls most is dark, and the lower part light, 

 where they are in shadow. By this means the 

 effect of light is somewhat equalized and the animal 

 made less visible. It would seem then, that to 

 make flies visible our wet flies should have the 

 opposite shades, that is, light on top and dark 

 below; this is done in the Black Dose and Jock 

 Scott. The fly when close to the surface being 

 reflected perfectly, the light upper part will show 

 up from below much more visibly in the reflection 

 than on the real fly which is in shadow when 

 seen from below. I have no doubt that salmon 

 which "come short" so often are frequently pur- 

 suing the reflection and not the real fly. They 

 are more or less out of practice because they live 

 in deeper water in the ocean where the reflection 

 is not seen. Trout live always in the same kind 

 of environment and become very skilful, but even 

 trout make many mistakes. As a wet fly ap- 



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