280 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May, 1918 
WHY’S AND HOW’S OF DRY FLY FISHING 
IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO PROCEED TO THE WATER’S EDGE TO LEARN TO THROW A 
FLY, AS A GOOD SIZED LAWN IS THE MOST CONVENIENT PLACE ON WHICH TO PRACTICE 
By R. L. M. (CALIFORNIA) 
F OR dry fly fishing a tapered line is an 
absolute necessity; without a tapered 
line, casting becomes a labor and an 
unsatisfactory labor at that. 
The best kind of line is the line dressed 
by the use of pure boiled linseed oil; the 
dressing done under an air pump, to get all 
the air out of the line. It takes a long 
time to properly dress such a line, and they 
are rather costly when compared with the 
price paid for other lines that are “just as 
good,” etc. But such a line will last for 
years if properly taken care of. A line 
should be always thoroughly dried at the 
conclusion of every day’s fishing. 
At the end of the fishing season it should 
be taken off the reel, stretched out and a 
suitable dressing rubbed on; this should 
then be wiped off and the line polished 
with a soft cloth, and then coiled up in 
loose coils and hung up until the next 
season begins, when another dressing and 
polishing should be applied and then the 
line can be put back on the reel. The 
dressing to put on the line should be ob¬ 
tained from the people who made the line. 
Never leave the line on the reel for pro¬ 
longed periods, if you wish the line to last 
for any length of time. 
Also when buying a new rod buy a new 
line at the same time and let the maker of 
the rod (provided he understands his busi¬ 
ness) choose the proper weight of line to 
fit the rod. A line that is too heavy for a 
rod will wear the rod out quickly, and ; 
line that is too light will make casting more 
difficult than would be the case with a 
properly proportioned rod and line. 
A well dressed oil silk line will not crack 
off the enamel if it gets a kink, for the 
simple reason that there is no enamel on 
the line to crack off. The dressing prac¬ 
tically penetrates to the center of the line 
and the outside finish is merely the surface 
of the dried oil smoothed and polished. 
The leaders used in dry fly fishing should 
be the best that money will buy. They 
should never be less than 2)4 yards long; 
tapering to a fine point, from fairly stout 
gut at the end to be attached to the line. 
The fine point should 'never be 
thicker than the finest undrawn gut. 
The diameters of the various thick¬ 
nesses of gut are approximately as 
follows: 
Finest undrawn. 0.009 of an inch 
X drawn . 0.0092 of an inch 
XX drawn . 0.0085 of an inch 
XXX drawn . 0.007 of an inch 
Personally I prefer to use XX and XXX 
drawn gut points on my leaders and my 
experience leads me to believe that they 
are amply strong enough for most trout 
that one is liable to catch on a fly. I have 
landed a number of trout on these thick¬ 
nesses of gut ranging from 4 to 5)4 lbs. 
The advantage of using the finest points 
that one has confidence in, is that one gets 
many more rises from trout on waters 
that are heavily fished than would be the 
case if coarser points were used. It is 
true that occasionally a large trout is lost 
73 L. M. (California), the author 
*■ of this article, is one of the 
best known authorities on dry fly 
fishing in the United States. lie has 
been a devotee of the art for over 
thirty years and has either person¬ 
ally met or been in correspondence 
with most of the acknowledged lead¬ 
ers of the British school of dry fly 
men, although the greater part of his 
fishing has been done in this coun¬ 
try. He is therefore well able to 
instruct both the novice and those of 
some experience in the art of cast¬ 
ing the dry fly. The April Forest 
and Stream contained the first paper 
of the series, which will be continued 
through several issues. [Editors.] 
by the breakage of the leader but if proper 
care is used yery few big trout will break 
these fine points and escape, compared with 
the number that will be successfully landed. 
T HE weakest point of the entire outfit 
of rod, reel, line, leader and fly, is the 
point where the fly is tied on to the 
leader. If the leader is thoroughly well 
soaked in warm water before it is used, and 
whenever the knot shows the slightest sign 
of weakness, if the fly is cut off and tied on 
again to the leader, the chances of being 
broken by a big fish are greatly reduced. 
Leaders should be kept in pockets formed 
of unbleached chamois skin; but it is not 
advisable to have more leaders on hand 
than are necessary for a season’s fishing, 
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because they do not last forever. If any 
leaders are left over at the end of the sea¬ 
son they should be the first ones used up 
in the following season. 
Fortunately for dry fly fishermen the cost 
of first class leaders is only a fraction of 
the cost of leaders used for salmon fishing. 
For instance, the retail price in London for 
finest undrawn gut leaders, 3 yds. long, is 
only $3.67 per doz.; for drawn gut leaders, 
$2.69 per doz., but first grade, 3 yd. salmon 
leaders, will cost as much as $4.50 each. I 
buy my leaders in London and after paying 
duty and postage on them, they do not cost 
me much more than 31 cts. each, which is 
a very small price to pay for a 3 yd. tap¬ 
ered leader of absolutely first quality. 
Today practically all floating Die's are tied 
on eyed hooks. Personally I always use 
Pennell eyed Limerick hooks, but if a pref¬ 
erence for other kinds exists the fisher¬ 
man can rest assured that turned up or 
turned down eyes are immaterial; one is 
as good as the other. A large number of 
eyed flies can be stowed away in a very 
small space compared with the space occu¬ 
pied by an equal number of flies tied on 
gut snells. 
Furthermore, a fly tied on a gut snell 
has a limited useful life. When fishing, if 
the gut at the head of the fly shows weak¬ 
ness, there is no possible way of repairing 
this, with eyed flies they can be retied on 
the leader, as already explained. Eyed flies 
that have not been used will last indefinite¬ 
ly but if tied on gut snells a very few jfears 
will make these flies useless for future 
fishing. In my collection of flies I have 
a number that I have had for fully 18 
years. They are as good today as on 
the day they were purchased, but if they 
had been tied on gut snells, they would 
have long ago gone on the scrap heap. 
The best box in which to carry one’s flies, 
etc., when fishing is a box that is the joint 
design of myself and Mr. John James 
Flardy. This box has 12 compartments for 
flies, with transparent tops. Only one com¬ 
partment need be opened at a time. There 
is a soft felt pad into which to stick flies; 
a round cork ditto; a receptacle for the 
combined tweezers and gut cutter ; a flanged 
recess of extra leaders; and on the outside 
of the box there is a recess which holds a 
rubber envelope in which there is a felt 
pad which when moistened acts as a dam¬ 
per for soaking leaders. The outside di¬ 
mensions of this box are 6 x 3J4 x 1)4 
inches; weight 10 ounces. The advantage 
of this box is that it reduces the number of 
separate articles required to properly 
equip the fisherman, as we have flies, spare 
leaders, and leaders soaking ready for use, 
all in one piece. 
A landing net will be needed when dry 
fly fishing and a “one hand” net is a ne¬ 
cessity. By a “one hand” net I mean a 
net that can be carried somewhere about 
the person of the angler, but can be reached 
and opened ready for use with one hand 
only. The net I use is V-shaped, the arms 
are 19F2 inches long and the handle 30 
