Favorite Fish and Fishing 



and sportsmanlike method of angling, and 

 look askance, if not with disdain and con- 

 tempt, at the wet fly-fishers, whom they des- 

 ignate as the " chuck and chance it " sort. 



I can not think that the position they 

 have assumed can be justly maintained, or 

 that it is warranted by the facts of the case. 

 As dry fly-fishing is being taken up by a 

 few American anglers, it may be well 

 enough to give the alleged superiority of 

 the method some consideration. 



Modus Some years ago the modus operandi of 



Operandi ^ fly-fishing was explained to me, person- 



ally, by Mr. William Senior, editor of the 

 London Field. The angler waits beside the 

 swim until a trout betrays its whereabouts 

 by rising to a newly hatched gnat or fly, 

 creating a dimple on the surface. The 

 angler then, kneeling on one knee, some- 

 times having a knee-pad strapped on, cau- 

 tiously casts his floating May-fly, with 

 cocked wings, and anointed with paraffin 

 or vaseline. The fly is deftly and lightly 

 cast up-stream, a little above the swirl of 

 the trout, and is permitted to float down, as 

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