CHAPTER X 



DRAG 



IF the wet-fly fisher, who believes in fishing 

 downstream, casts his flies across a pool of 

 uniform flow, they float onwards for a time 

 freely in answer to the current, but in course, as 

 the cast becomes tight, their progress is checked, 

 they begin to swing round, and finally they are 

 directly in a straight line below him. If he repeats 

 the cast with a dry-fly he will see the fly, after a 

 short journey undertaken exactly as a living insect 

 would perform it, turn aside from its path and at 

 rapidly increasing pace plough across the surface 

 of the water towards the centre of the pool. He 

 will then understand what drag is and learn also 

 how his wet-flies behave under water ; he may 

 even realise the cause of his frequent failures at 

 midsummer. 



Drag is the greatest trouble of the dry-fly fisher ; 

 but the problem of its avoidance is not unwelcome, 

 for, necessitating as it does the exercise of thought, 

 skill and ingenuity, it adds materially to the interest 

 of days spent beside the waters. That being so, 

 we shall not take away from him all his pleasure 

 by solving all his difficulties ; in other words, we 

 make a virtue of necessity, for it is quite impossible 

 for us to enumerate and examine all examples of 



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