128 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



andTgenerally widens the opportunities of sport 

 for the man who cannot be always on the spot to 

 seize the best opportunities afforded by a rise of 

 trout to the floating fly. 



Is this method open to any of the objections 

 attending the downstream raking we concur in 

 condemning ? Is it a duffer's game ? Is it 

 easier than dry-fly fishing ? Try and see. Does 

 it lead to the pricking and scaring of many fish 

 which follow a dragging fly ? No. Does it un- 

 duly disturb long stretches of water to the detri- 

 ment of the brother angler ? Why, it is as easy 

 to spend an afternoon on a hundred yards as it 

 is in the purest cult of the dry fly. 



If the trout are feeding, I for one fail to see why 

 they may legitimately be fished for if they are 

 taking a small proportion of their food on the 

 surface, but not if they are taking all, or practically 

 all, of it underneath. There is a sentence from 

 Francis Francis quoted with approval by Mr. 

 F. M. Halford, which runs as follows : 



" The judicious and perfect application of dry, 

 wet, and midwater fly-fishing stamps the finished 

 fly-fisher with the hall-mark of efficiency." 



Nothing could be more just if one reads it with 

 reference to all streams, whether chalk streams or 

 otherwise ; but to read it distributively so that only 

 the dry fly may be used on chalk streams, and only 

 the wet fly on other streams, seems an unnecessary 

 renunciation of opportunity ; while to read it as 



