LOCHS AND RESERVOIRS 175 



rising, in an Argyllshire loch, with aggravating 

 freedom to natural flies but showing complete 

 indifference to his, reminded himself of what he had 

 read regarding the efficacy of the floating fly. 

 Retrieving his cast, he anointed his trio of flies, 

 Peter Ross, Grouse and Green, and the Zulu, and 

 sent them out to ride the wavelets, and the result of 

 his experiment well-nigh converted him on the 

 spot into an enthusiastic dry-fly purist. 



Peter Ross is a grand wet-fly for the tail of a cast ; 

 but whatever the inventor had in view when he 

 designed it, it was certainly not a fly ; Grouse and 

 Green is a member of the Trickeptera, that hatches 

 generally in August. The Zulu is probably the best 

 bob-fly that can be made to skip across the waves 

 of a hill-loch ; but what it imitates we cannot guess. 



On the cast there was only one fly, and it was 

 only three months premature ; yet all three killed 

 well, for the simple reason that they were on the 

 surface, and so resembled in one highly important 

 particular the flies that were occasioning the rise. 

 It is as well to add that another angler who persisted 

 that day with wet-flies fished wet had by comparison 

 only mediocre sport. 



We could give innumerable instances out of our 

 own experience of the dry-fly thoroughly vanquish- 

 ing the wet-fly, when a rise was taking place ; but 

 we cannot recall a single occasion when the advantage 

 was reversed. Even at times in the absence of a 

 rise we have done well with the floating fly, when 

 the sunken variety would not lure a single trout. 



For dry-fly fishing in lochs the cast should be 

 made of carefully selected gut and should be as long 

 as the rod. It should consist of 2x gut for half its 



