Fishing with Floating Flies

by Samuel G. Camp

If you wish to attach a dropper fly to a dry-fly leader without loops use the method shown In Fig. 4, attaching at a point where two strands are knotted together.

Figure 4.

So many intricate details are connected with the subject of artificial flies, and with dry or floating flies particularly, that in order to reduce the discussion of the matter herein to a not inordinate length many points must of necessity be merely touched upon.

In later chapters, the efficiency of various patterns, as well as how and when to use them, will be discussed; at this point we are concerned chiefly with the purely material details of the "floater."

The construction of the dry fly differs considerably from that of the wet, but as this is a matter pertaining rather to the art of the fly dresser the subject need not be considered as imperatively within the province of the present discussion. It has previously been noted that at present the larger part of the dry flies obtainable in this country are imported from England. The tendency of the tackle dealers is to furnish comparatively few of the familiar American patterns tied dry.

The dry fly is, of course, dressed with the purpose of causing it to float as well as may be, and this is effected—although the method of construction varies to some extent with various patterns—by dressing the fly with double or "split" wings tied at right angles to the body (called "erect" wings) and with the hackling arranged to stand out well from the shank of the hook. The body of the fly is dressed very lightly and in some instances is of cork, straw or quill.

In the case of some of the latest patterns horsehair is used for the body material. As a rule dry flies are dressed upon small hooks, number twelve and smaller, and the hooks are of light wire. A list of floating flies which have been found effective on American trout streams is given in a later paragraph.

Almost without exception floating flies are dressed on eyed hooks; that is, without gut snells whipped to the shank of the hook, following the time-honored American custom, but with an eye or ring at the end of the shank by means of which the fly is attached directly to the leader. If space permitted the practical advantages of the eyed hook could very well be emphasized in detail; at present I can only urge every fly fisherman to adopt the use of the eyed fly for either dry or wet fly-fishing. If for no other reason than that of economy, the use of the eyed hook justifies itself: the feelings of the angler, who when looking over and testing his tackle for the approaching trout season pulls the snells without difficulty out of an even two dozen of the old-style trout flies which have never even been once used, are best left to the imagination.

Eyed hooks are made in two styles, with turned-up and turned-down eye; that is, in the case of the turned-down eye the eye is on the under side of the hook shank or bent toward the barb of the hook, the opposite being true of the other form. Much controversy has taken place regarding the respective merits of the two styles of eyed hooks, various authorities enthusiastically and convincingly championing either one or the other. It would seem that each form has its virtues and is quite satisfactory. Undoubtedly the reader, impartially experimenting with both styles, will soon discover which is best—for him. The greater part of the floating flies which come to this country are dressed on turned-up eyed hooks.