ii8 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



most accurately with the horizontal cast so as not to 

 scare the fish by the reflection of the rod waving 

 over it. He must fish a perfectly dry, floating, and 

 cocked fly, if he is using duns, smuts, or caddis-flies. 

 The spinners must also be quite dry and float- 

 ing, but with their wings flat on the surface and 

 not partially submerged. He must fish a very slack 

 line, and when he succeeds in hooking a large trout 

 on one of these rough places, must expect a lively 

 run and a well-conditioned fish. The miserable, 

 lanky, dark, ill-conditioned stew-fed trout do not care 

 to face the very fast water. 



Great stress has been laid on the question of drag, 

 because to my mind it is the most important factor 

 in the dry-fly fisherman's art. Pattern of fly, judg- 

 ment of the size of fish, combining accuracy and 

 delicacy in the first cast over a rising fish, keeping 

 out of sight not only the fisherman but his rod, these 

 are all essentials to success. Every one of these essen- 

 tials may have been carried out most effectually, but if 

 the artificial fly, instead of following the natural course 

 of a living insect, drags, the rising trout is set down 

 by the abnormal procedure and the chance of rising 

 or killing it is deferred for some considerable time. 



As before laid down the most effectual means of 



retarding drag until the fly is 



Methods for retarding past the rising fish, when 



drag. casting across the stream, is 



by laying the line in a curve, 

 of which the convex side is upstream. The action of 



