DRY FLY FISHING 55 



be the master of fine gut. Nor is fine gut the 

 only difficulty: there is another risk owing to 

 the smallness of the hook. It may be possible 

 to succeed with a fairly large imitation of an 

 olive dun on dark days early in the season, but 

 on these days in June a rather small red quill will 

 be the best fly. A small fly, if it is to float well, 

 must be tied on a small hook, and a small hook, 

 unless it should fasten in an extra tough part of 

 the mouth, can have but a weak hold of the fish. 

 The angler must therefore be prepared to lose 

 a large fish every now and then oftener probably 

 than he thinks quite consistent with good luck 

 by the hook losing its hold. In this matter of 

 losing fish we are more at the mercy of luck in 

 June than in May, and there are times when the 

 luck seems so bad as to turn what promises to 

 be a record day into a comparatively poor one. 

 Sometimes this luck comes in runs. I remember 

 on one day in the height of the summer having, 

 with small red quills and fine gut, the best and 

 the worst luck combined. There were not great 

 numbers of fish feeding, and the trout that 

 were rising were not rising fast. It took a little 

 patience to find a rising fish, and then more 



