92 OLD FLIES IN NEW DRESSES 



My readers must not suppose that I 

 intend to apply these remarks to any 

 particular circumstances ; I am only speak- 

 ing of wet-flies in general. While it is 

 probable that the natural fly does often 

 sink under the surface, and may then be 

 taken by the trout, the wet-fly of the fisher- 

 man does not as a rule behave as does the 

 natural fly when under water. That the 

 trout takes the wet-fly fished up stream, 

 which is allowed to come down with the 

 current without any drag and close to the 

 surface, for the natural fly it represents, is 

 also very probable ; but these facts do not 

 in any way tend to disprove my theory. 

 This manner of wet-fly fishing is very much 

 like dry-fly fishing, and is certainly not the 

 way in which wet-fly fishing is practised 

 in lakes, and is hardly the most general way 

 in which it is practised on many rivers. 



In dealing with this subject fully and 

 to carry my theory to its necessary con- 

 clusion, it is of course necessary to find a 

 probable explanation of what every form of 

 wet-fly, fancy or supposed imitation of a 

 natural fly, is taken for by the fish. This 

 naturallv leads us to believe that such a 



