i2 4 FLY FISHING 



successful in north country rivers. If there be 

 any angler on either side, who still holds such 

 opinions, he can but be advised to put them to 

 the test in practice, and so bring himself to a 

 more just frame of mind. 



My own fishing was first learnt amongst 

 northern trout with a wet fly, but from early 

 years it happened to me to spend all the best 

 of the fly fishing season, year by year, upon 

 chalk streams, till the use of the dry fly became 

 much more familiar to me than that of the 

 wet. I have known and tried enough of the 

 wet fly to be sure that the use of it has very 

 narrow limits in a pure chalk stream well 

 fished, where the season does not begin till 

 May ; and also to discover that the experi- 

 ence of dry fly fishing has not been gained 

 without sacrificing something of the knowledge 

 and skill which might have been acquired in 

 the other. Any one who can catch a Winchester 

 trout should be able to use wet flies with some 

 effect in riveis proper for them, but his basket 

 will not as a rule be so heavy as that of the 

 expert, who has made a special study of the 

 use of wet flies. It is easier to lay down rules 



