CHAPTER VIII 



INSTRUCTIONS 



THOUGH comparatively very few anglers 

 have become dry-fly fishers, it is pro- 

 bable that a great many have given 

 the floating lure a trial ; but it is generally after 

 many weary hours of fruitless casting on an un- 

 favourable fishing day, when everything else has 

 proved of no avail, that they suddenly remember 

 the existence of a little box of dry-flies stowed 

 away in some corner of the creel. 



They proceed to put them to the test, having 

 heard of their infallibility, but they are in the 

 worst humour for fishing after long-continued dis- 

 appointment, and they cast without care or inter- 

 est. The result in all likelihood is further failure ; 

 the efficacy of the dry-fly is declared a myth, and 

 its devotees are denounced as unmitigated exag- 

 gerators, or the equivalent in words of fewer syllables. 

 They make a general deduction from one particular 

 isolated case, but fail to see that, if they apply the 

 same sort of reasoning to all their experiences of the 

 day, they must conclude that the wet-fly, or the 

 worm, or whatever lure happened to be in use, 

 has absolutely no power to capture a trout. 



Now the dry-fly on its trial should be used under 

 conditions which seem to predict a successful 



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