Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. DRY FLY-FISHING. Dry fly-fishing has hitherto been very little practised in north-country rivers, but is rapidly becoming more general; perhaps it is owing to the presence of so many south-country anglers patronizing our northern rivers. The best course for the novice to adopt is to watch an expert, if possible, for a few days. In dry fly-fishing the rod should be about eleven feet long and possessed of plenty of driving power, with a tapered reel-line and the gut cast tapered also. The flies should be dressed on eyed hooks for many reasons, and to see the collection of a dry fly-fisher proper is interesting in the extreme, not only for the many different specimens but for the correct imitationsof the natural flies themselves in the minutest details. Entomological Knowledge Desirable. The use of these flies demands that the angler should have some considerable knowledge of entomology, and at a glance be able to recognize the actual fly that a rising fish is feeding on. This is by no means easily ascertained by the unskilled, and generally ends with the angler having to secure the natural fly, and even then much time is taken up in comparing the natural with the artificial to select the correct pattern. When you have done this tie the fly on the end of the cast, then dip it overhead in a small bottle of prepared paraffin (Cummins, of Bishop Auckland, sells a good brass bottle, unbreakable, and a great improvement upon the old glass pattern), then cast on to the water to wash the oil off again, then whisk the fly backwards and forwards in the air half-a-dozen times to dry it thoroughly. Approach a rising fish from below to within nice casting distance, aim at an imaginary point in the air about four feet above where the fish is rising, so as to ascertain th...