FLOATING FLIES 71 



to an angler on the bank, but he will see them easily 

 if he wades out and looks vertically down upon them. 



The cock-hackles, which support, as they should, 

 the imitation dun high in the water, cannot, however 

 convenient it might be, accommodate us now by 

 refusing to do likewise with the spent spinner ; the 

 wings cannot lie on the surface if the generally 

 recommended cock-hackles are used. A careful 

 application of the floating agent to the body and 

 wings, but not the hackle, might make the fly a 

 much more satisfactory lure ; but it is difficult to 

 prevent the liquid spreading to parts where its 

 presence is not desired. 



After a fairly long trial we have found a fly 

 dressed in spider-fashion superior to the hackle- 

 point spinner. Such patterns are very effective 

 during the evening rise and also in low water in 

 summer. The majority of spiders we have seen 

 err in having too much and too long hackle, some 

 of them, March Brown spiders particularly, being 

 excellent miniatures of the brush of a chimney- 

 sweep, but very unsatisfactory attempts to imitate 

 a fly. 



The conclusions arrived at are that, so far as the 

 Ephemeridce are concerned, the duns should be 

 dressed with double wings and single cock-hackle, 

 the spinners without wings and short, soft hen- 

 hackle. 



The hackle of a dry-fly is of extreme importance, 

 because it serves at least two and sometimes three 

 purposes. Not only is it intended to represent 

 the legs of an insect, but it is mainly on the hackle 

 that the dry-fly floats. 



Here we have an example of the difficulties atten- 



