SOME FANCIES SOME FACTS 203 



three or four yards at the end of the line, and 

 the dressing should be rubbed down smoothly 

 afterward. Under no circumstances should any 

 dressing be applied to the leader, because, even 

 though it helps to float the fly, the gut will be 

 found to be annoyingly buoyant when the still 

 reaches are being fished, and will produce that 

 troublesome form of drag already described, and 

 which I consider the only form that unduly 

 taxes the ingenuity and patience of the expert 

 and even-tempered. My own opinion is that 

 the sight of the leader does not seriously deter 

 the fish from taking the fly in swift water. But 

 on smooth water a superbuoyant leader is a 

 nuisance and a plague and an abomination. 



