126 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



keep casting his fly over the fish. He will cast time 

 after time in rapid succession, often get too excited to 

 dry his fly and, as a general rule, will not get a rise or 

 pluck of any kind. If by any chance he does get a 

 rise he will most probably not feel the resistance of a 

 fish when he strikes. If he should hook a fish, it is 

 no exaggeration on my part to assert that nine out of 

 ten hooked trout or grayling will get away. 



The meaning of this is that the fish are busily 

 engaged in chasing and securing the active nymphs 

 of the duns coming up through the water to the 

 surface, where they emerge from the nymphal en- 

 velope in the winged or subimago stage. Some of 

 the nymphs will be taken at a considerable depth, 

 some nearing the surface, some practically on the 

 surface, and occasionally the dun itself will fall a 

 victim just at the moment that it has emerged from 

 the shuck. 



With respect to the question of dressing imitations 



of nymphs, I have always 

 Imitations of nymphs, urged that any fly-dresser who 



sets his mind to it can do this 

 easily. Years and years ago Marryat and I dressed 

 most effective patterns to represent the nymphs of 

 duns and mayflies by tying in a few fibres of black 

 feather at the head, constructing the fly generally 

 with a quill body the colour of the abdomen of the 

 natural nymph, hackle short and spare, and the 

 whisks, which were also short, of gallina, were dyed to 

 shade. When the body material had been tied in, the 



