To play the nymph dry fly fashion you must cast up 

 stream in similar situations. Wet fishermen unfamiliar with 

 dry methods can learn it with very little practice as described 

 in a previous chapter on casting. 



It has already been stated the nymph would quickly sup- 

 plant the worm. It will do more than that taking a dis- 

 tinctly important part of the craft to enable you to get trout 

 when neither flies, nor worms will do so. For bottom fish- 

 ing it is not necessary to use a single nymph on the leader 

 two or even four can be tied on at the same time, they should 

 all be of different size and color, to do so you follow nature, 

 which at times furnishes many species of creepers to appear 

 simultaneously. 



Within the short period that I learned of the British 

 method I have not had much opportunity to make con- 

 clusive tests. Trout anglers themselves must take a hand 

 to make the method perfect in this country, just as I endeavor 

 to do. I can copy exactly from the natural creeper and insect 

 a perfect artificial imitation, which should in particular be 

 tested in Canadian and Maine waters where the largest trout 

 are available. British nymphs are exceedingly small, far too 

 small for my choice, and while I stated they are wingless- 

 all are tied with a tiny pair of undeveloped wings about one- 

 sixteenth of an inch that lie flat on the shoulder. 



The bodies are all thick and hairy in fact, any of our 

 popular flies with wings pulled off will make some sort of 

 a nymph if the body is fat and the hackle bushy. I am not 

 as yet sure, but I surmise that the right method of fishing 

 nymphs will prove more effective to get trout than any par- 

 ticular kind of nymph in other words, there is little choice 

 between them. The more important thing is to have the 

 nymph wiggle slowly from the bottom up to the surface then 

 back again. At the slightest touch made by the trout be 

 alert to jerk the wrist quickly; the remaining work to be 

 done is exactly like playing a fish on a fly. 



Every angler knows of the danger from sunken baits get- 

 ting snagged in fishing the rough stony bed of our streams, 



24 



