THE WET-FLY EQUIPMENT. 87 



while all the others should be in two, o and oo, the 

 black spider being oo and ooo. The biggest March 

 browns, GreenwelFs glories and coachmen, should 

 be tied on finest undrawn gut ; all the rest should 

 be on gut at least as fine as the point of the fine 

 casts, that is 3x. If the novice is naturally light- 

 handed he may get the smaller sizes tied on finer 

 gut still, 4x or 5x. In that case he had better also 

 get some spare strands of gut of corresponding 

 size and about I5in. long. These are known as 

 " points," and are to be attached to the end of the 

 cast to make it finer. Fifty points will cost about 

 2s. 6d. 



It is rather difficult to answer the natural question 

 as to how many flies of each pattern ought to 

 be procured. The personal equation comes in 

 here. An impetuous angler needs more than a 

 placid one. Let the novice imagine himself stand- 

 ing gazing up into a tree in which his cast and 

 three flies are safely entangled well out of reach, 

 and let him put to himself the inquiry which he 

 will do, climb or pull. If he is the kind of man who 

 will climb and take great trouble to secure his 

 property, his original stock need not be so large as 

 if his instinct bade him pull. Personally, for a 

 fortnight's fishing I should not feel safe if I had less 

 than two and a half dozen of the March browns, 



