May 31, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
685 
The Dry Fly Man’s Handbook 
By THEODORE GORDON 
the natural insect only a very good imitation 
in both appearance and action ot the fly which 
is being taken will produce a rise. Our dry- 
fly fisherman, then, closely scans the surface 
of the pool to determine, if possible, to what 
natural insect the fish rose. Eventually he 
comes to a conclusion as to this—a conclusion 
quite possibly, entirely erroneous. 
The question of what fly decided, the angler- 
addresses his attention to the matter of how 
to cast the fly over the fish to the best ad¬ 
vantage. The fly must come floating down to 
the trout, on the surface and with wings erect, 
even as the little natural dun to which the 
trout has just risen. The casting must be done 
with all possible unobtrusiveness and the caster 
must not be seen. Also the cast must be so 
made that conflicting currents will not drag 
the fl.y one way and the line another. 
It should be obvious that if the trout is a 
particularly good one, one which the angler 
is naturally very eager to take, our dry-fly man 
will decide all these points—every one of them 
an emergency in the making—with the utmost 
care. And when the cast is made, with all the 
skill the angler can command, the odds are 
heavy that it is made with many misgivings— 
very often entirely justified in the event. On 
the other hand, if the angler’s judgment and 
execution have been correct, and in consequence 
the trout rises and is fastened, the angler has 
every reason to believe that luck has had 
mighty little to do with the affair. 
Fishing all the water as in wet-fly fishing, 
casting where you have reason to believe a 
trout may be, is entirely a matter of judgment, 
also a matter of infinite variety. Angling con¬ 
ditions on the same stream are never alike two 
days in succession—or two hours, for that mat¬ 
ter—and the stream fly-fisherman must be pre¬ 
pared to meet emergencies of wind, weather 
and water with the proper tackle and methods 
for the time being. 
To know what flies to use and how to use 
them in order to meet disadvantageous fly-fish¬ 
ing conditions is the whole secret of successful 
fishing with the fly. When everything is “right” 
even the tyro may make a good showing. It 
is when the angler is up against a hard propo¬ 
sition that the stream experience and angling 
knowledge of the veteran turn defeat into vic¬ 
tory. In such an emergency it is, indeed, true 
that luck, pure and simple, may at times figure 
to the fisherman’s advantage; in the long run, 
however, knowing how to fish with the fly 
under any and all conditions—knowledge won 
on many a long day on the stream—tells the story. 
Not all the emergencies of a day on the 
stream have to do with the taking of trout; 
that is, the situation often concerns most in¬ 
timately the matter of tackle. Smash-ups, even 
with the very best of tackle in the most skilled 
hands, will sometimes occur; an emergency of 
this sort is, indeed, serious; to meet it ade¬ 
quately the angler must possess no little knowl¬ 
edge of splices, invisible windings, how to re¬ 
move ferrules, and so on. Additionally, it is 
to be hoped that the fisherman, dimly suspect¬ 
ing something of the sort, has fortified himself 
against disaster by carrying a little “emergency 
kit.” 
Kansas now has five-year close seasons to 
quail and pinnated grouse. 
T he publication of a book fresh from the 
hand of F. N. Halford is always an event 
in the angling world in America and 
France (already translated), as well as in Eng¬ 
land, and into this latest work has been con¬ 
densed all the knowledge and experience gained 
in forty years upon the chalk streams of the 
South of England. American fly-fishers began 
to read “Floating Flies” and “Dry Fly Fishing 
in Theory and Practice” more than twenty years 
ago, and their attention was directed to the use 
of floating flies upon their own waters. They 
soon learned to adapt English methods to the 
conditions as found in various portions of the 
United States. Mountain rivers of rapid descent 
differ widely from the placid chalk streams, but 
there are many streams in this country where 
somewhat similar conditions may be found. In 
this “Handbook” Mr. Halford has called to his 
assistance three experts to demonstrate the fine 
“DO NOT WADE THE SHALLOWS.” 
Sport that may be had in lake, loch and reservoir 
fishing for large trout with the dry fly. Of these 
the article by John Henderson on the “Dry Fly 
on Loch Arrow” in Ireland is probably most 
instructive and thorough, as this gentleman has 
spent ten years in working out methods and flies 
for taking the splendid trout (of from three to 
eight pounds) which formerly were supposed to 
rise only during the May fly season and to the 
natural insects, fished with a “blow line” of floss 
silk, which was wafted out by the breeze and 
gently dapped upon the water. (By the way, 
the new Shokan dam, in the Catskills, will 
afford the finest trout fishing in America, if 
properly treated, and not spoiled by the intro¬ 
duction of other predatory fish. It will be 
stocked naturally from the Esopus with the rain¬ 
bow and European trout of good size and 
quality.) 
As the number of dry fly men has increased, 
the fishing upon the best streams in England has 
become more and more a cult, almost a profes¬ 
sion, and the value of good water has increased 
enormously. There are purists and ultra purists. 
and the latter will never, never cast an artificial 
fly until after they have seen a real insect taken 
by a trout. They may remain all day in con¬ 
templation of the clear, flowing stream, often 
with the aid of a pair of binoculars, but unless 
there is a rise or “hatch” of ephemeridae, caddis 
flies or diptera, the fly-rod remains idle, spiked 
in the ground. Many English rods have a spike 
in the butt to hold the rod upright when chang¬ 
ing flies, and to save it from being trampled 
upon. 
In the chapter upon the “The Ethics of the 
Dry Fly,” Mr. Halford is very severe in his 
treatment of all those anglers who are not 
purists. He objects most decidedly to the use 
of wet flies and down stream fishing, upon dry 
fly waters, and gives quite a long list of “Don’ts.” 
Do not hammer a trout; that is, do not cast 
again and again over the same trout, as it may 
make it shy. 
Do not fish after it is too dark to see the fly. 
Do not wade the shallows. It makes the 
trout shy. 
Do not use wet flies or large glittering lures. 
Take heed of the example supplied by purists 
and ultra purists and imitate them in all things. 
Of recent years a school of anglers has 
sprung up in England who are experts with the 
dry fly, yet not entirely wedded to it. When 
trout are feeding upon nymphs coming up to 
hatch upon the surface, “bulging” it is called, 
or “tailing”; that is, rooting in weeds or shal¬ 
lows for larva, shrimps and snails, these men 
imitate the nymph or larva and cast up stream 
to these feeding fish which are usually difficult 
to catch. The flies they use are certainly wet, 
but many fishermen consider it fine sport, as 
this method enables them to take a few good 
trout on days when the dry fly is useless. As 
one of these masters of the wet and dry fly re¬ 
marks. “I should always instinctively fish the 
dry [fly] if my intelligence did not often tell 
me that the wet is the sounder method at the 
moment.” This point of view will be approved 
by many American anglers, but we quite under¬ 
stand Mr. Halford s position and opinions 
formed upon waters which command a high ren¬ 
tal, and which are stocked, nursed into fine con¬ 
dition, and protected in order that they may 
afford the best of fishing for large trout and 
the very best sport with the dry fly only. 
In our own experience in America we have 
frequently continued to fish the floating fly when 
we knew positively that a couple of wet flies cast 
up stream would prove more remunerative. One 
loves to see the tiny fly dancing with its little 
wings “cocked” as it floats toward us. The rise 
is more plainly to be seen and nothing in the 
world of sport is more fascinating than to cast 
to large trout that can be seen, or which are 
rising at natural water-bred insects. We have 
fished streams in this country where the trout 
were as shy and stalking them as necessary as 
anywhere in the world. Also one had to exer¬ 
cise the same care in the presentation of the 
counterfeit fly delicately and accurately as one 
would upon a chalk stream where all bait-casting 
is barred. No angler can read the Halford series 
