72 FLOATING FLIES 



the advance of the season and the usual grad- 

 ual falling of the water, conditions ever grow 

 more and more in favor of the dry and against 

 the wet fly. 



I could easily cite numerous instances which 

 have occurred in both my own experience and 

 in that of other anglers which go to prove the 

 effectiveness of the floating fly on low, clear 

 water, late in the season, when the wet fly is 

 usually ineffectual. Without, however, going 

 into narrative detail, it should be sufficiently 

 obvious that, under the conditions named, a 

 very delicately dressed floating fly, in appear- 

 ance quite similar to the natural ephemeridae 

 common to the stream, attached to a practically 

 invisible leader and riding down buoyantly on 

 the surface, with wings .erect, in the exact, 

 jaunty manner of the natural dun, is far more 

 apt to deceive the fish than two or more wet 

 flies, shapeless and draggled, of dubious col- 

 oration, pulled across or against the current in 

 a manner never followed by the natural insect. 

 Wherever a fly may be floated the dry fly is 

 distinctly the thing for late spring and sum- 

 mer fishing. 



Much has been said and written concerning 

 the character of the streams favorable for the 

 employment of the dry fly that is, as regards 



