26 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



an absorbent dubbing ; then a small and lightly- 

 dressed soft hackle, two turns at the outside, close 

 up behind a pair of wings tied in a bunch, and 

 either left single or, preferably for our purposes, 

 split in equal portions, and divided with the 

 figure-of-eight application of the tying silk behind 

 the wings and in front of the head, the whole 

 tied on «a rank, and not too light, round-bend 

 hook. 



It will be suggested that the trout does not see 

 the winged dun under water. That is approxi- 

 mately, though not quite absolutely, true ; but 

 for all that, being in some respects rather a stupid 

 person, if size and colour are right, he will not 

 make much bones of the position of the fly with 

 reference to the surface being incorrect. It might 

 be supposed, again, that a hackled pattern would 

 better suggest the nymph stage than a winged 

 pattern. This may be true, but the theory has 

 yet to be worked out in much detail before one 

 can dogmatize about it. Elsewhere my pre- 

 liminary efforts in this direction are described. 

 Here I could say that the wings built up of a 

 length of feather rolled into a bunch have the 

 advantage of taking up a lot of water, and not 

 releasing it readily ; and they also assist to let the 

 fly down more lightly on the water than so lightly 

 dressed a fly would fall but for the wings. To let 

 a hackled fly down as lightly, one would need a 

 lighter wire and a larger hackle. The wings also 



