Concerning Flies 229 



SOME GENERAL EEMABKS ON " HACKLED " 



FLIES. 



When dealing with the fishing of 

 "Waters" with the wet fly, had I been 

 asked to name one particular class more 

 suitable than any other for this purpose, I 

 should certainly have named hackled flies, 

 the " Spiders " of Stewart's book. I do 

 not mean for a moment that in doing so I 

 should have necessarily excluded winged flies 

 altogether. But, if I were asked to choose 

 between the exclusive use of " winged " or 

 " hackled" flies, I should then give my 

 vote in favour of wingless artificials (call 

 them how you like) for the fishing of tribu- 

 tary streams that is, Waters. They are 

 very often deadly, even in large rivers, and, 

 I need hardly say, are particularly suitable 

 for the fishing of burns, but in the fishing 

 of Scottish " Waters," from the time of 

 Stewart, down to the present day, these 

 "hackled" flies "take a lot of beating." 

 Even before Stewart wrote his book, the 



