I believe it pays best when fishing all the water to use a fairly large fly—as dry flies go—say a fly dressed on a No. 10 long-shanked hook. I have had particularly good results from the floaters tied on these long-shanked hooks and am of the opinion that for average dry fly fishing under American conditions, when fishing all the water, they are more successful than the orthodox patterns. This goes for the larger, deeper streams and, as noted, for fishing all the water. For small stream fishing smaller flies are preferable. So far as I know dry fly patterns on No. 10 long-shanked hooks are procurable only from William Mills & Son, New York.
But when casting to a rising trout, even if you cannot discern to what fly the fish is rising it is best to discard the fancy pattern—hare's ear, Wickham, or coachman, which are generally best to use when fishing all the water for general results—and to put up an imitation of some one of the duns, olive, iron blue, whirling blue, and so on, dressed on a No. 12 or 14 hook which best approximate in size the natural ephemera ordinarily prevalent on the trout streams. The common-sense of this should not need argument, and it is best to try the small dun before possibly setting down the fish with a fancy pattern.
From the above it could be gathered that one of the approximately exact imitations of the duns might be superior to a so-called fancy pattern for steady fishing, fishing all the water; and, indeed, upon occasions, this is certainly the case. In the season of 1911 I was out one day with a wet fly fisherman on one of the smaller Berkshire streams, upon which occasion we took eight trout from a small pool at the foot of a falls. The wet fly man, who, by the way, has played the game some thirty-five years during which time he has learned some few things about it, took two fish with the coachman and then cast for fully half an hour without results. In the meantime I busied myself with the camera, by no means, however, failing to note several rises in various parts of the pool.
When the wet fly man had gone on about his nefarious business I rested the pool while putting up an olive dun dressed on a No. 14 hook. Shortly thereafter I had six good trout for my pains and a still greater respect for the great little dry fly—in addition to a good working "bulge" on the veteran. But below the pool I could do nothing with the little dun and I was eventually compelled to return to my favorite golden ribbed hare's ear with which I then killed several good fish.
For straightaway all-water fishing it would seem that a good fancy pattern, rather large, ordinarily gives the best results, save over very clear or low water when everything depends upon refining the tackle. Moreover, when fishing the water it is distinctly easier to keep a comparatively large fly dry and floating—the very small patterns when in constant use soon become thoroughly soaked and difficult to float.
[CHAPTER VIII]
Insects of the Trout Stream
The order Ephemeridae includes the natural insects most important to the dry fly-fisherman, the May flies and other day or ephemeral flies; of the life history of these Insects a fairly complete sketch has been given in the preceding chapter. Of course the locality will determine In great measure the natural flies which the angler must approximate with his artificials, the duns having precedence practically everywhere, but the caddis flies, Trichoptera, are quite certain to be prevalent at times, and also the stone flies, Plecoptera; in addition there are many small two-winged insects, Diptera, which occasionally appear on the water. However, the strictly water-bred flies, such as the May flies and duns, caddis and stone flies, are practically the only ones with which the angler is intimately concerned.