THE DRY FLY. 177 



merely raising his rod, as the line comes home, allow the 

 fly, sustained by the dry hackle and wing and by the dry 

 gut, to float down on the surface like the natural fly, with- 

 out motion. If the gut be delivered in a wavy manner, 

 the bends and turns in it will show a glitter and startle 

 the fish ; if the angler attempts to draw the fly towards 

 him, it will ' make snakes,' and the dry gut will appear 

 like a huge centipede crawling on the water. Perfect 

 quiescence is required. It is quite wonderful at times 

 what can be done under apparently adverse circumstances 

 with a dry fly, no weather and no water being proof 

 against it. As I have said, you may keep on casting over 

 a fish as long as the fish keeps rising with a dry fly with 

 a good chance of getting him at last. I think you can 

 almost make a fish believe that there is a rise of some 

 particular fly up by keeping on casting over him. 

 The great thing is not to scare him ; as long as he keeps 

 rising you have a chance. I stuck at a fish for about 

 three-quarters of an hour last season at Andover, casting 

 without stopping as the fish kept rising. My friend 

 thought I wouldn't get him, but I saw the fish come and 

 look at the fly once or twice, and I had hopes. He took 

 at last with less break than a two-ounce dace ; but he was 

 a two-pound trout, and I bagged him. If a trout ceases, 

 leave him till he gets well on the rise again, and then try 

 him with a new fly. I have known many of the Winches- 

 ter men stop for hours over a good fish, trying him with 

 all sorts of flies, and get him at last. 



The judicious and perfect application of dry, wet, and 

 mid-water fly-fishing stamps the finished fly-fisher with 

 the hall-mark of efficiency. Generally, anglers pin their 

 faith to the entire practice of either one or the other plan, 

 and argue dry versus wet, just as they do up-stream versus 

 down, when all are right at times, and per contra, all 



N 



