50 



A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



The gentleman is not alone ; there are others on 

 whose minds has dawned the thougfht that the colour 

 of the lure is scarcely more important than its form. 

 To one of these we are indebted for the information 

 that "The wings of the fly should be dressed so as to 

 be distinctly apart both in the water and out of it." To 

 dress the lure in the fashion he prescribes is, he declares, 

 to give it a more life-like appearance. He is mistaken. 

 To provide the artificial fly with outspread wings is not 

 necessarily to impart to it the aspect of vitality ; on the 

 contrary, it may be to advertise the fact that it is 

 counterfeit. What semblance of reality it exhibits in 

 the air is lost the moment it becomes submerged. 

 Neither to the fish nor to the fisher has it ever chanced, 

 to see beneath the surface of the water 

 an insect in the attitude of flight. 



" The flies," says another writer, 

 "which are most successful when sunk 

 are precisely those which most closely re- 

 semble the 'creepers' (sic) of Ephemerids." 

 Curiously enough, the writer, in illustra- 

 tion of his point, has selected that well- 

 known fly, the Green well's Glory. His 

 choice could scarcely have been more un- 

 fortunate. The statement that the flies 



