Practical Dry-Fly Fishing 



as "the dean of American anglers," 

 approached very closely to the the- 

 ories of the dry-fly angler of to-day, 

 when, in his interesting work, "The 

 American Angler's Book," published in 

 1864, he advised wetting the line occa- 

 sionally to make it heavier, saying: 

 "The weight of the line thus increased 

 helps the cast. If it could be accom- 

 plished, the great desideratum would 

 be to keep the line wet a,nd the flies 

 dry. I have seen anglers succeed so 

 well in their efforts to do this by the 

 means just mentioned, and by whip- 

 ping the moisture from their flies, that 

 the stretcher and dropper would fall 

 so lightly, and remain so long on the 

 surface, that a fish would rise and take 

 the fly before it sank." 



In the same chapter Mr. Norris gives 

 a specific instance of this style of fish- 

 ing: "It occurred at a pool beneath 



[300] 



