TACKLE' 213 



is also true that the very large extent of choice 

 in his boxes diminishes the angler's chance of 

 selecting the right thing at any given moment. 

 After much trouble I have therefore come to 

 the conclusion, that we lose more than we gain 

 by carrying about a large stock of fancy flies, 

 and by this I mean that we lose not only in 

 purse, but in number of fish. I have come to 

 believe that in all kinds of fly fishing we get 

 most success on the whole by concentrating our 

 attention upon a few patterns of proved merit 

 and persisting with them, and my advice to every 

 young angler is to get confidence in a few 

 patterns by experience, as quickly as he can, and 

 to stick to these. He must at first use the ex- 

 perience of others to put him on likely tracks, 

 but that confidence, which is half the inspiration of 

 good fishing, must be gained at first hand. Being 

 convinced therefore that the object should be 

 to exclude patterns of flies rather than to include 

 them, and to lead us to concentrate upon a few 

 varieties only in the virtue of which we thoroughly 

 believe, let me give the results of my own experi- 

 ence, for what they are worth. 



Of salmon-flies I will give four patterns. 



