TROUT-FISHING 



it is more difficult to outwit) can be taken by such coarse means, 

 wliy should one put himself to infinite pains with floating flies and 

 gossamer gut. The zest — ^the crowning charm^-of dry-fly fishing is 

 weakened, if it is not destroyed, when it is demonstrated that chalk- 

 stream trout can be conquered in bright weather by other and less 

 delicate tactics. 



But when all is said and done, there is no question that there is no 

 branch of fly-fishing to compare in difliculty and delicacy with the dry 

 fly. Not that the difficulty is greater than can be overcome by anybody 

 who is fairly proficient with the wet fly. The easiest way to acquire the 

 knack is to start when the mayfly is up. I had the luck to do so on May 20, 

 1893. Not only had I never fished dry before, but I had never seen any- 

 body do so, but, having a general idea of what should be the proceed- 

 ing, I managed to extract from the Test at Broadlands two brace of trout 

 weighing 7^ lb. This gave the novice confidence. Next day was Sunday: 

 on Monday morning I went out again and the very first fish I landed was 

 the heaviest brown trout I have ever killed on the fly. It weighed 6 lb. — 

 a clear case of duffer's luck. 



It is uncertain when dry-fly fishing first became recognized as a 

 regular branch of the craft. The earliest explicit reference thereto which 

 I have come across is in Pulman's "Vade-mecum of Fly-fishing,"* as 

 follows: 



•' When the state of the atmosphere is favourable for the produc- 

 tion of flies, they come down in swarms, and the fish, in order to seize 

 them the more easily, station themselves close under the surface, 

 gently lifting their noses to catch them as they sail over. Now it is 

 impossible to make a soaked artificial fly swim upon the water as the 

 natural flies do; so that, when cast by the angler to a flsh thus occu- 

 pied, it very commonly escapes his notice, engaged as he is at the 

 surface. This is plain, because, if the wet and heavy fly be exchanged 

 for a light and dry one and passed in artistic style over the feeding 

 fish, it will be taken in nine cases out of ten, as greedily as the living 

 insect itself. We admit, however, that to ensure this, imitation of the 

 predominant species is required; opining that if the dry fly be widely 

 different as regards size and colour, the fish will be surprised and 

 startled at the novelty presented, and suspend feeding." 

 Here, had the necessity for casting upstream been insisted on, we 



*LoDfaan'; 2iid edition, 1846. 



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