174 PRACTICAL FLY FISHING 





 providing he believes that the spot he last floated his 



fly over is barren of possibilities. 



The dry fly fisher must at all times keep in mind 

 the fact that he is imitating nature as closely as pos- 

 sible. His flies are almost exact duplicates of the 

 living insect and he must make his fly float as naturally 

 as he knows how. When the fly is on the water the 

 slack line is slowly taken in by the caster's left hand, 

 or rather the fingers of the left hand, but at no time 

 should the line pull on the fly which should be floated 

 solely by the current. While I have taken trout on 

 flies that were handled in an unnatural manner the 

 true-to-nature-idea is a good one for the dry fly fisher. 



The drag is the dry fly man's greatest enemy and 

 there are several kinds. There is the drag caused by 

 taking in slack too fast; there is drag imparted to the 

 fly by the wind catching line or leader and worse than 

 all is the drag caused by the fly being near the bank 

 in rather slow water and the line being farther out in 

 the stream where the full force of the current acts 

 on it. The first can be avoided by a little care; the 

 second is never serious except on the windiest day when 

 dry fly fishing is both unpleasant and unprofitable. 

 The drag of the current is minimized by casting so 

 that there is an upstream belly in the line or by straight 

 ahead casting to avoid getting the line in fast water. 



Next to floating the fly naturally the greatest prob- 

 lem lies in hooking the fish. You do not keep a taut 

 line in dry fly fishing to avoid the drag and when a 

 fish does rise he has time to taste the fly, learn its true 



