38 FLY-FISHING AND FLY-MAKING. 



CHAPTER II. 

 PRACTICAL FLY-FISHING. 



Practical anglers, as a rule, are not reading men. Your 

 " reading " man lie who with unfeigned delight reads 

 carefully every angling work that comes in his way; 

 weighs the pros and cons of the controversy "up versus 

 down stream fishing," "dry" versus "wet" fly, "eyed" 

 versus " ordinary " hook, "typical" versus "imitation" 

 flies, etc., etc., is commonly not a very practical angler, 

 and I firmly believe that the really successful fishermen 

 who have derived solid benefit from the many beautiful 

 works published on fishing are in the minority. I am 

 forced to this conclusion after a lengthened experience of 

 anglers and their ways. The fact is, that literary style and 

 finish is usually incompatible with concrete and pithy 

 direction and explanation. One can hardly put polish and 

 style into a book of prescriptions, and yet this is really the 

 sort of thing that the practical man needs when he wants 

 to learn about "How to catch fish." He cares little 

 for the Walton style of writing, which breathes of poesy 

 and worms in the same paragraph, but would listen 

 readily to this grand old angler if he were told in the 

 brevity of a formula how to collect, preserve and use 

 the annelids, omitting references to the nightingale's 

 trill or the saints in Heaven. Yet, all thanks to good 

 old Walton for his gracious advocacy of the art and to 

 the other refined and scholarly men who have written in 

 the Walfconian vein. In the quiet of our sanctum sane- 

 torum, when the winter winds shriek and whistle outside, 



