Trout Flies, Artificial and Natural 73 



through various stages to know fish with nothing but 

 my own nature flies. I have made careful color pic- 

 tures of all the most abundant insects and produced 

 flies tied to exactly imitate them. Many insects do 

 not and cannot float, yet an imitation can be made 

 of them to fish wet. The English dry fly is not of 

 necessity a copy of the natural insect. Halford has 

 many fancy dry flies that are not copies of insects. 

 Nearly all American commercial trout flies are fancy 

 flies, and do not imitate insects. To be exact, in fishing 

 with a floating fly it is only right to use copies of in- 

 sects that will float, mostly drakes. The average 

 Angler has been sadly fooled by this so-called dry-fly 

 fishing, and books have been written (mostly culled 

 from British sources), making Anglers more bewildered 

 than ever." 



Charles Zibeon Southard, author of Trout Fly- 

 Fishing in America: "In reply to your question 

 about trout flies, 'Am I right?' I would say that 

 unquestionably you are. From the earliest days of 

 trout fly-fishing it has been the intention of Anglers 

 to have their flies resemble as far as possible the 

 natural ones found upon their trout waters. One has 

 only to read dear old Izaak Walton and the many noted 

 fly-fishing authorities that have followed to the 

 present day to be convinced of your view. Of course 

 the art of fly-tying has advanced with mighty strides 

 during the past fifteen years and more especially 

 during the past ten years, and to the makers of 'dry 1 

 flies for the wonderful development of the artificial 

 fly too much credit, in my judgment, cannot be given. 

 That wet flies are not such remarkable imitations of 

 the natural flies as are the dry flies goes almost with- 

 out saying. As a matter of fact it is not the question 



