THE CHOICE OF FLIES 



dancing on the top of the water would attract our 

 attention, and had we the bass's pugnacious will, 

 we, too, might tackle with avidity the man encased 

 in so bright a robe. 



To the thoughtless casual observer a fly is just 

 a bundle of feathers jumbled together anyhow 

 without meaning. By no means is it so. The great 

 and standard flies have been evolved, designed, 

 sometimes after many years of thoughtful study 

 of both nature and habits of the fishes, and, the 

 inventor of such a fly as, for instance, the silver 

 doctor, unquestionably has conferred a world- wide 

 benefit for all time. Such a fly is born but once in 

 a very long time, like a Shakespeare or a Dante. 

 But all anglers are of one mind in this: that a 

 limited variety of the famous patterns is all they 

 want, although the designs to pick from are as 

 various as the flowers that bloom. Practical fly- 

 fishers of many years' standing, like the late Wil- 

 liam C. Harris, Dr. Henshall, and others, have 

 repeatedly stated that in their experience they soon 

 discarded all but a few patterns. Dr. Henshall has 

 complete faith in his own creations, and with rea- 

 son, too; though his inventions are less brightly 

 colored than those of others, and, in the writer's 

 opinion, have too-thick bodies, at least in some 

 instances. In only one of the five flies is red used, 

 and that only for the body and hackle. On the 

 other hand, Mr. Harris was a staunch believer in 



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