THE FLOATING FLY 69 



tion of a few good fish taken by fair methods 

 under the prevailing conditions. If these may 

 be taken by dry fly casting, so much the better; 

 if not, then assuredly the average angler, 

 whose fishing trips are few and to whom a 

 moderate success on the stream seems very 

 desirable, may have recourse to the wet fly 

 without losing caste. That, at times, nothing 

 can be done fishing dry is a fact easily suscepti- 

 ble of proof. 



Personally I have never so fully enjoyed 

 fly-fishing as I have since taking up the dry 

 fly, which I have now come to use almost ex- 

 clusively and often when I know perfectly well 

 that more success would attend the use of the 

 sunken fly. This, however, I take to be a 

 strictly personal matter; my fishing opportuni- 

 ties are many, and although I am on the 

 stream a great deal (during the last ten years 

 at the very least four days a week throughout 

 the season) it is only infrequently that I go out 

 with any great desire to " catch fish." To the 

 general run of trout-fishermen, for the rea- 

 sons stated above, I would not advise the ex- 

 clusive use of the dry fly; if, on the other hand, 

 the angler elects to practice this method to the 

 exclusion of all others, that is his affair and 

 a matter for congratulation. 



