Old Flies in New Dresses / How to Dress Dry Flies with the Wings in the Natural Position and Some New Wet Flies

by Charles Edward Walker

[2] Since this article appeared in The Field, some correspondence on the subject has taken place in The Fishing Gazette and St. James’s Gazette. Many of the arguments brought forward by some of the correspondents have led me to believe that I cannot have made myself sufficiently clear in the above article, so I have added some further explanations.

My readers must not suppose that I intend to apply these remarks to any particular circumstances; I am only speaking of wet-flies in general. While it is probable that the natural fly does often sink under the surface, and may then be taken by the trout, the wet-fly of the fisherman does not as a rule behave as does the natural fly when under water. That the trout takes the wet-fly fished up stream, which is allowed to come down with the current without any drag and close to the surface, for the natural fly it represents, is also very probable; but these facts do not in any way tend to disprove my theory. This manner of wet-fly fishing is very much like dry-fly fishing, and is certainly not the way in which wet-fly fishing is practised in lakes, and is hardly the most general way in which it is practised on many rivers.

In dealing with this subject fully and to carry my theory to its necessary conclusion, it is of course necessary to find a probable explanation of what every form of wet-fly, fancy or supposed imitation of a natural fly, is taken for by the fish. This naturally leads us to believe that such a theory, if it approaches the truth, should include an explanation of why the salmon takes the fly.

We know but little of the world as it appears to the eye of the fish, but from the little that is known something may be deduced which carries this theory a little further. In the sea many and very various effects may be produced upon objects moving through the water when passing between the eye and the surface, by light, by the reflecting powers of the bottom of the water, and by the relative clearness of the water, all of which factors of the effect produced vary to an almost incalculable extent.

Given a bright sun, a light sandy bottom and clear water, a small crustacean swimming between the eye of the observer and the surface often will not appear to be like the creature when it is seen out of the water. The outline will be indistinct, and the whole will frequently appear to be brilliantly coloured. Not only is the body thus brilliantly coloured, but equally gaudy rays will be seen round it, probably produced by the moving legs and by refraction.

In this case the circumstances are all in favour of the production of an effect of brilliant colouration; but going to the other extreme, with a dull light, a dark bottom and cloudy water, we have the dullest-coloured fly accounted for, as the first conditions accounted for that which was most gaudy. This also explains the fact that the flies which go in various gradations of colour between these extremes are most suitable for various conditions of the weather, water, and locality.

In the case of the Salmon-fly, probably the salmon remembers, when he has reached fresh water, many an appetising morsel in the shape of a crustacean or small fish, and takes the fly for one of these.

In the case of the trout we know that crustaceans are very acceptable to them, and though probably fresh water will not produce the brilliant effect which is produced by salt water as I have described above, still, as fancy Trout-flies do not run to such gaudy colours as do Salmon-flies, still the effect should be sufficient to account for a fair amount of brilliant colour under similar conditions. No doubt some of the fancy Trout-flies are also taken for small fish.

In many waters, however, the effect could hardly be made brilliant, as shallow water, shade produced by weeds, &c., and muddy or dark bottoms would all militate against its being so, and in these waters probably only lures that imitate the actual colours of the object they represent would be of any use.

In fresh water and in the case of trout, as I have pointed out, there are many aquatic creatures which serve as food which have the power of swimming through the water.