CHAPTER V
Where and When to Use the Floating Fly
Before going further into the details of casting and fishing the dry fly it would be well to consider at some length the question of the best times and the most favorable places when and where the angler would be wise to depend solely upon the floater. That the fascination of dry fly fishing is such that many fly-fishermen elect to practice no other method under any and all conditions goes without saying, but the fact remains that under average American fly-fishing conditions the floating fly is sometimes at a disadvantage and the average American angler may well accept this fact with good grace, using the dry or sunken fly turn and turn about as the occasion determines. In this I do not wish to be understood as holding any brief for the wet as against the dry fly for any such reason as that "bigger bags" may at times be killed with the wet fly than with the dry—it is merely a question of a few good fish taken by fair methods under the prevailing conditions. If these may be taken by dry fly casting, so much the better; if not, then assuredly the average angler, whose fishing trips are few and to whom a moderate success on the stream seems very desirable, may have recourse to the wet fly without losing caste. That, at times, nothing can be done fishing dry is a fact easily susceptible of proof.
Personally I have never so fully enjoyed fly-fishing as I have since taking up the dry fly, which I have now come to use almost exclusively and often when I know perfectly well that more success would attend the use of the sunken fly. This, however, I take to be a strictly personal matter; my fishing opportunities are many, and although I am on the stream a great deal (during the last ten years at the very least four days a week throughout the season) it is only infrequently that I go out with any great desire to "catch fish." To the general run of trout-fishermen, for the reasons stated above, I would not advise the exclusive use of the dry fly; if, on the other hand, the angler elects to practice this method to the exclusion of all others, that is his affair—and a matter for congratulation.
It would seem that the ideal conditions for the dry fly are somewhat as follows: A clear, smoothly flowing stream, whether fast or slow being immaterial if the surface is not too broken; the stage of water should be normal, although at the lower levels, as the season advances, everything is in favor of the dry as against the wet fly; finally, insect life should be fairly abundant on the stream and the trout feeding more or less at the surface on the natural fly.
In the early days of the season, when the stream is apt to be in flood and the water very cold and more or less discolored, the wet or sunken fly is plainly indicated. Until, with the progress of spring, air and water have grown warm, and the bright sunshine brings on the natural ephemeridae, the fish are usually ground-feeding, or feeding in mid-water, and will rise only infrequently to the fly fished upon the surface. At such times the fly caster who holds to the employment of the dry fly is doomed to disappointment.
In fact, it would seem that fly-fishing under these conditions should be done more along the lines of bass or salmon fly-fishing—not with the idea of simulating even approximately the natural insect food of the fish but rather with the purpose of exciting the trout and inducing them to strike by the use of a glittering or highly colored fly which, fished considerably beneath the surface, arouses their curiosity or anger or may be taken for a small minnow. This style of fishing with the fly is distinctly on a lower level than the correct imitation of the natural floating insect by means of the dry fly; nevertheless, in fairness to the many fishermen whose days on the stream are rare and eagerly anticipated with attendant hopes of some practical success, I cannot but advise the use of the sunken fly under the conditions named or when, at any time during the season, somewhat similar conditions prevail.