20 FLOATING FLIES 



casts it is generally necessary to dry the fly 

 by several false casts, that is, without allow- 

 ing the fly to touch the water. To the fly-fish- 

 erman of any experience it should be very plain 

 that a first-class fly-rod and a skilled wrist are 

 somewhat essential. Moreover, the dry fly 

 man works largely, although not exclusively, on 

 the still pools and quiet reaches, where only the 

 best of tackle, handled with a more than moder- 

 ate degree of skill and care, can produce con- 

 sistent results. 



Furthermore, no little skill must be exer- 

 cised by the angler in order properly to ma- 

 nipulate, or fish, the single " floater " when the 

 cast has been made and the fly is upon the 

 water, it must be allowed to float naturally 

 downstream in the manner of the natural fly 

 under like circumstances. All of which sounds 

 perhaps not so very difficult, but, in practice, 

 the operation really has complications of which 

 the tyro little dreams. It is true that a dry 

 fly possesses a certain degree of buoyancy, but 

 if bunglingly cast and subsequently awkwardly 

 manipulated, the fly is soon " drowned," drawn 

 under water by the weight of a carelessly slack 

 line or from some other cause really, as a rule, 

 preventable by the careful and skilled rod- 

 handler. 



