Introductory 3 



knowing to a degree ; the tendency will be 

 for men who have tried all they know with 

 the wet fly, to take a leaf out of one's 

 neighbour's book, and try what the dry fly 

 will do, on occasion. 



Let me be very clear about this, how- 

 ever, lest I may be misunderstood. 



I have no patience whatever with the 

 extreme purist of the dry fly, who, in the 

 month of April or beginning of May would 

 not unbend by a hair's breadth, were he 

 placed on the Deveron or any such Scottish 

 river. 



At present, I should advise the southern 

 angler who comes to fish in Scotland, to let 

 the dry fly be "his crutch rather than his 

 staff," on the majority of our rivers; and 

 especially in the early spring. 



He may leave Euston or King's Cross, 

 congratulating himself that a man who can 

 take the trout of the Itchen and Test, need 

 " fear no foe in shining armour." He may 

 even " thank Heaven that he is not as other 

 men," nor " even as this publican" (of the 

 wet-fly persuasion), who, by the way, may 

 be his brother-in-law, and a hard nut to 

 crack, by the side of a good Scotch trout 

 stream, with his wet flies and his dry jokes, 

 all the same. 



