CHAPTER II 



' Fishing the Rise" and "Fishing 

 the Stream," and a Word 

 About the English "Purist" 



THE theory of dry-fly fishing is 

 founded on the use of an arti- 

 ficial fly that is an exact imita- 

 tion* of a natural insect, in size, shape, 

 and color, and so made that it will not 

 easily sink; it is cast up-stream and al- 



* Several times in this book I shall speak of flies 

 tied in exact imitation of natural insects. It will 

 be readily understood, especially if one looks at 

 some of our common insects through a microscope, 

 and sees with what wonderful delicacy they are 

 formed, how impossible it would be to fashion with 

 feathers, silks, and other materials at the command 

 of the fly-maker, exact reproductions, from a tech- 

 nical and scientific stand-point, of live insects. The 

 author means by "exact imitations" artificial flies 

 that have been made to match in size, shape, color, 

 and other details the original insect with all possible 

 fidelity. 



