98 FLIES, FLY-DRESSING, ETC. 



the required number. The gut on which the 

 droppers are dressed thus forms a continuation of 

 the main line, and for this reason they should be 

 dressed on the very longest threads. 



The droppers should hang down from the main 

 line from two and a half to three inches. If the 

 distance is increased they are apt to become 

 ravelled with the main line, and occasion the 

 angler considerable loss of time. The distance 

 between the flies should be from twenty inches 

 to two feet. If it is greater in rough water, the 

 angler may pass over a trout without its seeing 

 any of them, and there is nothing in the sight of 

 two flies at a time calculated to alarm a trout. 



Some works, when giving instructions for mak- 

 ing a fly-cast, recommend that the first dropper 

 should depend from the main line about three 

 inches, the second, five, and so on, always increas- 

 ing the distance when a fly is added. Their 

 object, if we understand it aright, being, that in 

 fishing, the flies are to be drawn along the water, 

 so that the main line does not touch it at all, but 

 merely the flies. This discloses a very erroneous 

 method of fly-fishing. No angler with any pre- 

 tentions 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 



