A Dry -Fly Purist's Advice to a Beginner. 79 



Late or night fishing, or even in the moonlight, 

 is not now to be thought of by the dry-fly artist. 

 When he cannot see the small duns or large blue- 

 winged olives, or where his own artificial falls 

 amongst the ovipositing Phryganidse, he gives up 

 fishing for the day it may be tired and weary, yet 

 sighing that the good time is over. 



It is an old saw, often repeated, " That the man 

 who is longest by the riverside kills most fish," but 

 that is certainly not true if applied to modern dry- 

 fly fishing, for an expert will make a good bag in 

 half the time an ordinary performer could. And 

 even in wet-fly practice, skill and experience, and 

 " an eye for water " to discriminate between the 

 likely haunts where he thinks fish should be, and 

 the unlikely, will obtain better sport than a novice 

 in the art lingering by the riverside from morn till 

 dewy eve. Chance and desultory fishing seldom, if 

 ever, avail against a skilled hand. 



Swear not at all. Even a harmless expletive may 

 by degress increase in force and degenerate into an 

 oath, when provoking mishaps occur, such as breaking 

 the top of your rod, or losing the largest fish you 

 have hooked and played in the act of trying to land 

 him ; or if, when the evening rise of fish, fast and 

 furious, is nearing its finish, your gut cast becomes 

 hopelessly entangled, and you miss your last and best 

 chance. The man who thus laments over his bad 



