A Dry -Fly furisfs Advice to a Beginner. 53 



they are intended to represent, and, still more so, 

 what the fish take them for. I am inclined, however, 

 to think that it is the body portion of the artificial 

 fly (looking a little like some floating insect, or a grub 

 in its advanced nymphal condition a familiar object 

 to every fish feeding under the water) that constitutes 

 the chief attraction for a rising trout as he sucks 

 in the tempting morsel. Nevertheless, from a dry- 

 fly man's point of view, the wings must stand 

 upright, and sail the body down- stream in a natural 

 manner. In this connection it may be surmised 

 that an Alexandra fly (which is at present generally 

 tabooed on private trout-streams) is taken for a 

 minnow, and the whole glittering family of silver, 

 gold, or tinsel-bodied flies, from a gold tag to a 

 Wickham fancy, are also taken for larvae, gemmari, 

 coleoptera, lepidoptera, perchance for hymenoptera, 

 for I have more than once seen a wasp, struggling 

 and gyrating by the action of its wings, pass down- 

 stream until snapped at and swallowed by a too eager 

 trout a dangerous tit-bit, one would think. 



It is no doubt a pleasure and some advantage for 

 an amateur to learn to tie his own flies in an artistic 

 manner, as he not only tries to copy the natural ones 

 which he meets with on the rivers he frequents, but 

 he can carry out his own fancies and inventions, 

 which, if successful, he can keep secret for himself. 

 I have known some of the roughest-looking 



