FORMATION OF THE FLY-CAST. 93 



few inches above the hook, then join the end of c to 

 this, and so on till you have got the required num- 

 ber. The gut on which the droppers are dressed 

 thus forms a continuation of the main line, and 

 for this reason they should be dressed on the very 

 longest threads. 



The droppers should hang down from the main 

 line from two and a half to three inches. If the 

 distance is increased they are apt to become ravelled 

 with the main line, and occasion the angler con- 

 siderable loss of time. The distance between the 

 flies should be from twenty inches to two feet. If 

 it is greater in rough water, the angler may pass 

 over a trout without its seeing any of them, and 

 there is nothing in the sight of two flies at a time 

 calculated to alarm a trout. 



Some works, when giving instructions for making 

 a fly-cast, recommend that the first dropper should 

 depend from the main line about three inches, the 

 second, five, and so on, always increasing the dis- 

 tance when a fly is added. Their object, if we un- 

 derstand it aright, being, that in fishing, the flies 

 are to be drawn along the water, so that the main line 

 does not touch it at all, but merely the flies. This 

 discloses a very erroneous method of fly-fishing. 

 No angler with any pretensions to skill ever allows 

 his flies, or even his line, for yards above them, to 

 create a disturbance in the water, nothing being 

 more calculated to alarm a trout than seeing flies 

 or line rippling the surface, which the flies must do 



