198 THE DRY FLY AND FAST WATER 



consequently, he can hardly be expected to take 

 the fly when his interest is divided betwixt the 

 desire to feed, on the one hand, and suspicion 

 tinged with fear on the other. 



Upon glassy water, the glistening leader, twist- 

 ing and turning upon the surface, accompanied 

 by little wrinkles along its entire length, pre- 

 sents to the fish an aspect which must at least 

 arouse his curiosity and distract his attention 

 from the fly even though it does not terrify 

 him and scare him off entirely. 



The visibility of the leader has always been 

 one of the problems of the fly fisher, irrespective 

 of the question of drag. Many attempts have 

 been made to produce a leader of neutral colour 

 that would be invisible, or approximately so, 

 when on the water. I have done some experi- 

 menting in this direction myself. I have tried 

 all colours greens and browns, mist colours 

 and greys. I have steeped leaders in ink until 

 they came out absolutely black. Yet, withal, I 

 have failed to satisfy myself that one was better 

 than the others, when I came to use it on the 

 stream. If there is one colour that a leader 

 may be stained to render it less visible than an- 

 other, I do not know what it is. I am inclined 

 to believe, however, that gut of natural colour 



