STRETCHERS AND DROPPERS. 71 



numbered, and its season noted. From these 

 models he should dress his flies, and when he finds 

 he has succeeded in framing perfect copies, he 

 should note down the materials he has used in 

 their formation, and then he will have sure guides 

 for the fly-dressers he employs. He should pay 

 those persons well, and engage none who do 

 not deserve high pay; and should charge his 

 customers a remunerative price. The generality 

 of flies are sold at too low a price. They cannot 

 be made well at a low price. They must be de- 

 fective in every way, and hence the purchaser 

 meets with little success, much loss of time and 

 of money, for cheap things are always the most 

 expensive in the end. 



In trout and grayling fishing I would always 

 have three flies on my casting-line at the same 

 time. The tail-fly or stretcher should be the 

 best, and when possible the largest; the first 

 dropper, a good general fly, and the second drop- 

 per, or third fly, a most attractive hackle. The 

 stretcher should be an imitation of the fly in 

 season. It is the fly which ought to fall first on 

 the water if you cast well, it floats most naturally 

 in it, and a fish hooked by it is more easily played 

 and killed than with either of the droppers. 

 When you find that fish are rising at one sort of 

 fly only, that your stretcher, or one or other of 

 your droppers is the sole attraction, remove your 



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