FLIES, FLY-DRESSING, ETC. 91 



not touch it at all, but merely the flies. This dis- 

 closes a very erroneous method of fly-fishing. No 

 angler with any pretensions to skill ever allows his 

 flies, or even his line for yards above them, to create 

 a disturbance in the water, nothing being more 

 calculated to alarm a trout than seeing flies or line 

 rippling the surface, which the flies must do if drawn 

 along the water sufficiently fast to keep the main 

 line out of it. A great many different methods of 

 making up fly-casts are practised by anglers. Some 

 append them by loops, but loops make such a show 

 in the water that we never have one in any part of 

 our line, and to have the droppers depended by them 

 we consider perfectly suicidal. Others join the main 

 line together by the single slip-knot which is drawn 

 asunder, and the end of the thread of gut on which 

 the fly is dressed having had a knot put on it to 

 prevent it from slipping, is inserted, when the knot is 

 drawn together again. In point of neatness this is 

 less objectionable, but is apt to slip, as all single knots 

 are. The neatest and most secure method is the one 

 first described, and all anglers should adopt it. 



The number of flies that should be used at a time 

 is a matter upon which great diversity of opinion 

 exists ; some anglers never use more than three, while 

 others occasionally use a dozen. If the river is so 

 large that the angler cannot reach the opposite bank, 

 he may use as many as he can throw properly ; but 

 if the river can be commanded from bank to bank, 

 the propriety, under any circumstances, of using 

 more than three or four is exceedingly doubtful. In 



