CHAPTER IV 

 SUPPLEMENTARY IN THE MATTER OF FLIES 



OF WET-FLY DRESSINGS FOR CHALK STREAMS. 



Assuming that we have made up our minds to 

 test the wet fly upon chalk streams, it must be 

 taken as an axiom that the ordinary patterns of 

 the dry fly will not do. They are built to dry 

 and to float. The patterns required must be built 

 to soak and to sink. Therefore bodies and hackles 

 which throw the water must be rejected in favour 

 of bodies and hackles which take up the water or 

 readily enter it. So dubbed bodies in place of 

 quills, hen hackles in place of cock's, and of these 

 a minimum of turns in place of a maximum ; and 

 if whisks are used, they^ too, must be soft and 

 soppy. For the same reason, wing material, if 

 employed, should be so arranged as to take up 

 the maximum of water, and to let it go as un- 

 willingly as possible. Furthermore, the bulk of 

 material in proportion to the hook metal must be 

 reduced as far as possible. 



Given these requirements, let us look around, 

 as I did, among all the various systems of wet-fly 



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