148 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



grouse lands. The stock of game, when not shot down, 

 quickly deteriorates in numbers and quality. So I put 

 it forward that if the wet fly used to supplement the dry 

 fly involves the more rapid killing off of the older stock, 

 it does good to the fishery and not harm. The only thing 

 to be guarded against is injury to the young stock, and 

 that may be done by prohibiting down-stream fishing with 

 a dragging wet fly. If the stock be found to be diminishing 

 too rapidly, the basket may be limited, but the angler who 

 only comes down for a day, which he would not have 

 chosen had he foreseen what it would be, has at least a 

 chance of putting some fish in his creel which the conditions 

 might otherwise have barred. 



If I am right, the opponents of the wet fly fairly used 

 seem to be driven upon the argument that it is not fly fishing. 

 This is a mere Verbal distinction culled ad hoc, and as an 

 argument it leaves me cold. For generations wet-fly 

 fishing was the only fly fishing — on waters, too, where the 

 dry fly now reigns supreme — and in those days, if records 

 do not he, baskets were not inferior to the best of the 

 present day. And if a method of wet-fly fishing, which, 

 in the sense only of its giving one an added chance of trout, 

 and no other, is detrimental to the water, is a sin, then I 

 am quite content to remain in my iniquity with Kingsley 

 and Francis Francis, and a host of other good anglers, 

 and I deny the right of users of Wickham's Fancy, Gold- 

 ribbed Hare's ears, Pope's Nondescripts, Red Tags, 

 Macaw Tags, and Bumbles, and fancy flies generally, to 

 cast the first stone at me. The light rod, casting a medium 

 line, available for either dry fly or wet, and a supply of a 

 few patterns, specially dressed for sinking, in addition to 

 one's floater, render it possible for the angler to cast up- 

 stream to his trout dry fly or wet, as he may judge best, 

 with no more fear of injuring the young stock in the one 



