DRY-FLY FISHING 



been seen to take the fly, and this insures time for 

 him to get the fly in his mouth before the strike 

 reaches the fly and pulls it away. A salmon is a 

 large fish and makes a very visible wake and splash 

 in the water, and very often a fisherman in his 

 excitement pulls the fly away from him before he 

 reaches it. On the other hand, when a salmon 

 comes up straight from the bottom from deep 

 water I have very often pulled it too late because 

 they do not show in the water coming up vertically, 

 and what the fisherman sees on the surface is the 

 wake made by their tail after they have turned and 

 gone down after having ejected the fly. This was 

 the case one late evening in New Foundland in 

 the Triton Brook, where I missed a large number 

 of rises until my guide, who was above on the bank 

 and who could see the fish as he came to the fly, 

 told me I was striking too late. After that he 

 called out when a fish was coming and I struck 

 before I saw anything, and finally succeeded in 

 hooking six fish in this way. These conditions, 

 however, are very unusual; generally the fisher- 

 man strikes much too soon, as the salmon usually 

 carries the fly in his mouth several feet before 

 letting it go. 



It is of course quite difficult to cast a fly as shown 

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