IV 

 SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS 



WHAT MADE THE DRY FLY POSSIBLE. 



In the pleasant pages of " Chalk Stream and Moorland," 

 Mr. Harold Russell, in tracing the early history of the 

 dry fly, comments on it as somewhat strange that fishing 

 with a floating fly did not become general in Southern 

 England many years earlier than it did, but he does not 

 advance what I conceive to be the true reason. The use 

 of the dry fly connotes the ability of the angler to fish 

 upstream whatever the state of the wind. The clearness 

 of the chalk stream required the casting of a longer line 

 than was necessary on rough streams. The silk and hair 

 lines which, prior to the coming of the American braided 

 oiled silk lines, were the best that could be produced could 

 not be cast into an adverse wind. They could be cast 

 upstream with the wind, across-stream with the wind, and 

 down-stream with the wind, but, as a general proposition, 

 casting against the wind was beyond them. A fly cast 

 upstream or across with the wind might very well float 

 or sink — in either case it might be taken by the trout — 

 but a fly cast down-stream was bound to sink. So as 

 anglers had to make their account with fishing down-stream, 

 their flies were dressed to sink. And as any violence in 

 striking when the fly is down-stream is apt to be visited 

 with a smash, rods, though built long to fish far off, had 

 to be floppy in the top to ensure gentle striking. The 



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