FLIES 75 



or other technicalities of fish hooks as good flies nowa- 

 days are always tied on suitable hooks and fly fishers 

 should use nothing but good flies as their quarry is a 

 hard fighter and his mouth is exceedingly tough, re- 

 quiring a sharp point to hook him and an honestly made 

 hook to hold him. My preference is for the round 

 bend hooks like the O'Shaughnessey or Sproat in the 

 larger sizes and the Model Perfect, Limerick or Sproat 

 in the smaller ones although if the hook is of good 

 quality I will not reject a well-tied fly if on a hook 

 with a side bend like the Sneck and I don't believe 

 a fish would either. 



SIZES 



Bass flies vary somewhat as to size regardless of the 

 size hook used, some being tied bulkier than others. 

 However, a good bass fly should be neatly proportioned 

 and should correspond, to some extent at least, to the 

 hook on which it is tied. 



For small, clear streams where the bass average 

 small or moderate in weight, the choice of the average 

 bass fisher would be a number 6 or even as small as a 

 number 8. When the same stream is roiled a number 

 4 or number 2 would be required to get the fish's at' 

 tention. For average bass streams numbers 4 and 2 

 are most often used while numbers I, i-o and up to 

 3-0 are appropriate for clouded waters, wind swept 

 lakes and streams and for the big bass of our southern 

 states. These sizes (all based on Redditch scale) 

 are only general and many anglers prefer larger or 



