THE DRY FLY. 115 



down by the stream. In this position they are 

 taken by fish, and in this position the fisherman 

 imitates them. For success he depends, apart 

 from general fishing skill, on two things. His 

 fly must imitate accurately a living insect. This 

 alone does not distingush him from the wet fly 

 man, for with the wet fly accuracy of represen- 

 tation is even more necessary. But besides 

 imitating the appearance, he must also copy the 

 behaviour, of the natural fly. Herein lies the 

 difference : his fly must act as well as look like 

 the real article. To effect this he must con- 

 struct it so that it looks like a fly with wings 

 unwetted and then cast it so that it floats over 

 the fish with the current as the natural fly does. 



Why is the dry fly used and who discovered 

 it? 



The reason of its use is easy to tell; it was 

 the increased shyness of the fish. The actual 

 inventor, unfortunately, is not known, that first 

 explorer into a new world. But there is little 

 doubt as to the process and method of his 

 discovery. Stoddart says that every fisherman 

 must have met with cases where the first cast of 

 the day proved successful, because a dry fly is 

 more likely than a soaked one to attract a crafty 

 trout. A recent writer* quotes an old Wyke- 

 hamist whose memory went back to 1844 when 

 the systematic use of the dry fly was unknown 

 on the Itchen. The boys used to look for a rise 

 and made a point of putting their fly while still 



*Chalkstream and Moorland, by Harold Russell (1911). 



