80 FLIES, FLY-DRESSING, ETC. 



made, natural-looking fly will, where trout are shy, 

 kill three trout for one which a clumsy fly will'; 

 and a fly with the exposed part of the hook taken 

 off will raise more trout than a fly with the same 

 left oil In the first case, the trout see no resem- 

 blance in form to anything they are accustomed to 

 feed upon, and, unless very hungry, decline to seize 

 it. In the second case, the resemblance to nature 

 not being 'so complete in the one fly as in the other, 

 fewer trout are deceived by it. The third case shows 

 that trout can detect that a hook is an unnatural 

 appendage. 



The great point, then, in fly-dressing, is to make 

 the artificial fly resemble the natural insect in shape, 

 and the great characteristic of all river insects is 

 extreme lightness and neatness of form. Our great 

 objection to the flies in common use is, that they 

 are much too bushy ; so much so, that there are few 

 flies to be got in the tackle- shops which we could 

 use with any degree of confidence in clear water. 

 Every possible advantage is in favour of a lightly- 

 dressed fly ; it is more like a natural insect ; it falls 

 lighter on the water, and every angler knows the 

 importance of making his fly fall gently, and there 

 being less material about it, the artificial nature of 

 that material is not so easily detected; and also, as 

 the hook is not so much covered with feathers, there 

 is a much better chance of hooking a trout when it 

 rises. We wish to impress very strongly upon the 

 reader the necessity of avoiding bulky flies. 



