ARTIFICIAL FLIES. 121 



may I think be found in the fact that in the rough, broken 

 water which constitutes the greater portion of these rivers, 

 the life-like and attractive movement of the hackle fibres 

 proves more seductive to the fish than a sunken winged fly 

 would do. On the more sluggish southern streams, a sys- 

 tem which is styled <f dry flyfishing " is greatly practised, 

 and on several occasions on the Yorkshire rivers I have 

 taken a good dish of trout by resorting to this plan, when 

 I should otherwise have met with very poor success ; the 

 flies most suitable for this style of fishing are the up-winged 

 duns, such as the " Little Iron Blue," " Olive Bloa," " Pale 

 Blue Dun,' 1 " Quill Gnat," etc., etc. ; the cast must be com- 

 posed of the very finest drawn gut or single horse hair, and 

 one fly only attached to the end of it ; wading carefully 

 up stream, the angler watches for the indications of a rising 

 fish on the smooth gliding water at the head of a stream, 

 and carefully measuring the distance with his eye, delivers 

 his single fly lightly about a couple of feet above his inten- 

 ded victim, very seldom has the cast to be repeated, if 

 your pattern is a correct imitation of the fly upon the water, 

 whereas it is almost any odds against a sunken hackled 

 fly being taken under similar circumstances. The late 

 David Foster, of Ashbourne, was, I believe, the first to 

 originate the plan of dressing flies similar to the above 

 named with wings, which would retain an almost upright 

 position when wet or subjected to heavy usage, and his 

 method, as explained in his eminently practical work, The 

 Scientific Angler, is as follows, he says : " Let us suppose 

 for the time being that the intending operator has already 

 fashioned the body of the fly, and has in readiness the 

 material for its remaining component parts, viz., the legs 

 and wings ; now instead of next placing the legs and lastly 

 the wings, he must reverse the operation by attaching the 

 wings first, the addition of the legs completing the process. 

 . . . . The feather should also be ample in dimensions, 



