72 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



It is the very worst of taste for a guest to follow 

 these tactics, because he should know that it is the 

 unwritten law of the dry-fly man on a chalk-stream to 

 eschew any but the legitimate method. An old hand 

 has no possible excuse, because in addition to know- 

 ing the before-mentioned unwritten law, he is fully 

 aware of the bad effect produced by hooking and 

 rendering shy so large a proportion of the feeding 

 fish. He ought to know, too, that his hospitable 

 friend will abstain from making any remark on the 

 subject, although his unspoken thoughts may be most 

 eloquent. 



One who is used to the sunk fly may be unaware 

 of all this, and thus find an excuse. If by any chance 

 he should kill an odd sizable fish he would probably 

 be unduly elated. He might go away and talk of 

 having wiped the eye of the dry-fly man, or even fly 

 into print and proclaim orbi et urbi that he had made 

 the astounding discovery that the dry-fly men are all 

 fools, and that the sunk fly will at times kill on these 

 south-country chalk-streams. Like many more, he 

 will be deluding himself Years and years ago it 

 was well known to the hahituds of the Test and 

 Itchen that on happening days oAd, fish may be killed 

 with wet-fly fished across or even downstream. 

 Everything possible has been done by the dry-fly 

 men to dissuade all and everyone from practising 

 this lapse from their notion of sport on an essentially 

 dry-fly stream, a notion which may perhaps be deemed 

 ultra-orthodox by some of their confreres. 



