WHAT THE FISH SEES 



made the leader a brownish color and also opaque. 

 In the tank the visibility was less than half that 

 of any other gut I have found. I want very much 

 to try this out in comparison with the gut I have 

 been using for salmon leaders. I believe it will be 

 much better and take more fish. 



If the leader is on the surface, as shown in Fig- 

 ure 24, it becomes very visible by the light-con- 

 denser effects. The illustration shows a leader 

 .006 inch on the surface, and the same imder the 

 surface where it is almost invisible, showing only 

 a thin line. This has taught me not to oil the 

 leader near the fly and let it go below the surface 

 where it will be less easily seen. I oil it farther 

 up to prevent it from sinking, so that I can easily 

 retrieve my cast. In very bright sunlight and 

 clear still water a leader even of a very small size 

 will cast a very heavy shadow on the bottom, de- 

 pending somewhat on the depth. But I have no- 

 ticed a leader of .008-inch diameter cast a shadow 

 as large as my thumb in two feet of water. This 

 shadow often scares salmon extremely and they 

 will not take a fly if it passes over them. Under 

 these conditions the fisherman must either wait 

 until there is no shadow or cast so that the fly 

 only passes over the fish and not the shadow. 



[ 61 ] 



