CHAPTER VIII 



DRY-FLY ON LOCHS AND LAKES 



It has often occurred to me when travelling in 

 Switzerland and elsewhere without rod or tackle to 

 find myself on the bank of a lake containing a certain 

 number of trout. The natural impulse of a dry-fly 

 man under such conditions is to be on the look-out 

 for rises, and to devote some^time to studying the 

 habits of the trout when seen and the class of insect 

 on which they are feeding. In lakes where the flow 

 of the water is very slight a rising or feeding fish 

 does not move in the same way as in a stream. 

 Instead of waiting for the floating insect to be carried 

 down to them by the strength of the current, the trout 

 cruise about to find and pick up the surface food. 



During- the hot weather smuts as well as duns, 

 spinners, caddis-flies, and winged ants are generally 

 present, and the trout are not, as a rule, loth to take 

 goodly toll of them. In olden times I have frequently 

 thought that instead of getting inferior sport with 

 sunk flies an enthusiastic fisherman could probably do 

 well with the floating fly. It has, however, not fallen 

 to my lot to follow up the casual study of this branch 

 of the subject by anything like a serious attempt to 

 cope with the intricacies of it. Like many others, 



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