CHAPTER VII 



FLIES AND FLY-DRESSING 



There are two people who should not 

 visit Brittany for purposes of sport — 

 the dry-fly purist, and his friend the owner 

 of fatparklands with stocked waters. For 

 them this fishing would be one long dis- 

 illusionment and vexation. They would 

 find whole lengths of ideal water fishless, 

 and on arriving, weary, at the cottage by 

 the bridge, would be taken by a proud 

 peasant to admire his drying nets. They 

 would trip over night-lines on the river- 

 bank ; and, while gazing through their 

 binoculars for that reiterated rise, would 

 discover only a bare-footed, blue-bloused 

 gainin " groping " in the shallows. Often 

 would they be forced to " fish the stream," 

 and on many a day only the wettest fly 

 would prevent an empty creel. 



If, therefore, our ways lie in poached 

 189 



