FLY FISHING FOR TROUT 7 



that I am fishing, fills his basket and finds me with but a 

 brace of fish. It is the delightful method, more than its 

 success, which makes the dry fly fisherman. 



However, whether the angler elects to fish by the dry or 

 wet method, or whether he may be spinning a minnow or 

 throwing a salmon fly, the essential object he has to achieve 

 is to throw his line in the lightest and most accurate manner. 

 He should remember that the more nearly he can extend 

 his line in a horizontal direction in the forward cast, the 

 more lightly will his fly or line fall on the surface of the 

 water. Lightness and delicacy of casting are especially 

 necessary for dry fly fishing, as the line has to be cast more 

 or less over the trout, and success will depend, therefore, 

 to a great extent on skill in casting. 



If the dry fly fisherman be using a fly similar in size and 

 appearance to that which is being taken by a rising fish, 

 and if his cast and line be thrown so that the fly alights 

 accurately and delicately at from two to four feet above 

 this rising trout's position immediately after a rise, and the 

 fly is permitted to float on the surface of the water over the 

 rising fish, the odds on the fish rising again to this fly will 

 be about level ; but if the fisherman owing to his first cast 

 being faulty, or to any unnatural movement of the fly, has 

 to make a second cast, the odds against a rise will be as ten 

 to one ; and if, for a similar reason, a third cast at the same 

 fish has to be made, the odds may be regarded as about a 

 hundred to one against a rise. 



Since I first ventured to express this axiom I have been 

 flattered by hearing that the late Mr. G. C. Marryat, one of 

 the most eminent of dry fly fishermen, formulated an almost 

 similar axiom. I think, however, the odds he expressed 

 against the third cast being successful in producing a rise 

 were as fifty to one. 



To be successful in either of these methods of trout fly 



