DRY -FLY PRELIMINARIES. 117 



novice remember that it is the hackle and not the 

 _wing which gives a fly power to float, and that 

 while a single-winged fly with stiff hackles will 

 serve as a dry fly very well (though double wings 

 survive the wear of casting better and are more 

 usual), a double-winged fly with soft hackle is 

 useless. When a fly has no wings to be supported 

 stiffness in the hackle is not so important, but even 

 then it is a comfort. The one exception I have 

 made of set purpose. 



Size is sometimes an important matter on a chalk 

 stream, but not as a rule, because one varies it very 

 little. If you examine the flies on six different rods 

 in the morning of an ordinary fair fishing day, you 

 will find that five of ^them are oo. The sixth may 

 be o or ooo. The intermediate size is, indeed, the 

 biggest that the fish will usually take, and the 

 smallest that the angler can use with a reasonable 

 chance of holding a heavy and active trout. There 

 are exceptions, of course, and on waters which are 

 not much fished No. o is often as effective as the 

 smaller fly. Therefore, the novice should have some 

 of each pattern, except the black fly, dressed on o 

 hooks. The rest I am inclined to suggest should be 

 oo. The smaller size still is too bad for the temper, 

 and though I use it myself, and though nearly all other 

 anglers do too, I think we should all be happier if 



