I70 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



nearly calm, for dry-fly work at Blagdon, and I always 

 make for the sheltered side or bays in the expectation 

 that the fish will begin to rise there sooner, or at any 

 rate that one will be able to see them doing it. I 

 believe that a dry-fly cast at a venture and allowed to, 

 siton_togofjthewater will catch fish, just as it does 

 with sea-trout in the Hebrides — ^in fact I know that it 

 has done so. But there is not the same charm about 

 fishing blind in this way. The essence of the sport is 

 to find a huge fish visibly rising and to try and catch 

 him by the orthodox dry-fly process." 



" I need hardly say that a powerful rod, plenty of 

 reel line, and strongish gut are advisable at Blagdon. 

 Personally, I prefer a rod of about eleven feet, like to 

 have at least seventy yards (with backing) on my reel, 

 and for dry-fly use gut which might be described as 

 medium mayfly gut. With this equipment one is 

 prepared to meet anything in reason. The biggest 

 Blagdon trout I have had with dry-fly weighed 4f lb., 

 but it is quite on the cards that one might get into 

 something a good deal heavier. I can conceive 

 nothing more triumphant in a fishing career than the 

 subjugation of a Blagdon lo-pounder with a dry-fly 

 from the bank, and every year as I revisit the lake I 

 am buoyed up with hopes of such a victory. Rivers 

 do not give us such promise as this, or very rarely 

 indeed, so here is another inducement to study the art 

 of the dry-fly on big lakes where monster trout are to 

 be found." 



" H. T. Sheringham." 



