DRY FLY FISHING 69 



essential, but the first is the most important, 

 and in dry fly fishing the most interesting. To 

 achieve the first of these objects the angler tries 

 to make sure, (i) that the trout shall see his 

 fly bearing the greatest possible resemblance to a 

 natural fly in appearance, position and motion ; 

 and (2), that the trout shall see nothing of the 

 angler's person and nothing else of his tackle 

 save the fly. The effort, in short, is to make 

 the trout notice the fly without noticing any- 

 thing else. It is in this that the fine art of dry 

 fly fishing consists. The fly is a tiny insignificant 

 thing, the angler with his apparatus is more or 

 less bulky and obvious; but he has to display 

 the insignificant and conceal the obvious. This, 

 however, does not explain more than half the 

 difficulty, for the fly which is so small must not 

 only conceal a hook, but also support the weight 

 of the hook floating on the surface of the water, 

 and must do this without any appearance of 

 effort ; a fly lying on its side as if tired by the 

 weight of the hook is not nearly so attractive 

 as one sitting upright. In fact, the fly must 

 float as if it were buoyant, cheerful and in the 

 best of spirits natural flies having the appearance 



