CHAPTER VIII 

 A FEW PATTERNS OF FLIES 



THE literature devoted to the subject of the 

 artificial fly is very extensive and informing, 

 and it is not my intention to add thereto except 

 for the purpose of describing a few flies that I 

 use in my own fishing. The tackle shops offer 

 almost countless patterns of flies of varied hues 

 and forms, and anglers can indulge their indi- 

 vidual tastes by choosing sizes, colours, and shapes 

 to suit their fancies. I have never attempted to 

 compute the number of artificial flies listed in 

 the dealers' catalogues and described in the 

 works of angling writers, but I think it must 

 run into the hundreds. There is, however, a 

 growing tendency toward restriction in the 

 number of special patterns used in actual fish- 

 ing, and in my own fishing I have reduced this 

 number to a very small one. 



It is doubtless true that the fly fisher derives 

 no small part of his pleasure from the act of 

 selecting and purchasing flies. It is within the 



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