MAINLY TACTICAL 83 



violence ; but this is entirely beside the point, 

 for it in no sense detracts from the value of my 

 illustration of the occasional serviceableness of the 

 calculated drag in still waters, even with the 

 dry fly. 



My friend M. Bougie acutely distinguishes drag 

 of the kind here described as the drag of deplace- 

 ment, as compared with the drag of retention, 

 which occurs on moving water. 



On the Pang at Bradfield resides a blacksmith 

 named Holloway, who is a first-rate angler, and 

 I have seen him practise the deliberate drag on 

 fast water with the May-fly in a manner which in 

 other hands would send every trout scuttling to 

 cover, but he did not put them down a bit. He 

 ties a May-fly — not a very pretty confection, but 

 admirably constructed for this purpose. The 

 hackle, which is white, instead of standing out 

 more or less at right angles to the hook-shank, is 

 so tied as to lie almost flat upon it, and as a result 

 the fly leaves practically no wake when it is drawn 

 over the fish, and the movement, which he prac- 

 tises assiduously, far from scaring the fish, appears 

 to be actually attractive. Yet the Pang fish are 

 quite wary, and liberties may not be taken with 

 them with impunity. In this case once more we 

 have the drag of deplacement, but it is hard to see 

 why it should not be just as fatal to the angler's 

 chances as the drag of retention. 



II — 2 



