THE DRY FLY 45 



Mr. M. Gill points out there is no good reason 

 why the dry-fly artist should not fish the stream 

 successfully. In England the dry-fly artist 

 waits for the rise of a fish, then places his float- 

 ing fly in the center of the wavelets; but again 

 and again I have demonstrated to my own satis- 

 faction that "fishing the stream" is fruitful of 

 results even when no fish appear at the surface. 

 In a word, the method of the dry-fly fisherman is 

 to keep the fly upon the surface of the water; in 

 this he is ofttimes aided by waterproofing his 

 flies with any one of various concoctions. The 

 aim of this modern fly-fisher is to allow his flies 

 to pass over the waiting fish, floating naturally, 

 so that the fish is deceived by the "counterfeit 

 presentment"; therefore he must pay particular 

 attention to his flies. More might be said under 

 this head but in so brief a discussion it is out of 

 the question. 



A word regarding the waterproofing of the 

 flies, or more properly fly, for but one is used. 

 Flies become wet, even though the angler makes 

 a number of false casts through the air after each 

 cast upon the water; so, to aid him in his efforts 

 to "keep the feathers dry," he anoints them with 

 any one of various waterproofing liquids known 

 to the trade under several names. Personally I 



