THE TWEED — TROUT-FLIES. 63 



stream loses itself in a deep pool, whicli can only be 

 reached by a long cast across and downwards, after the 

 angler has waded as far as he can with safety. Here 

 large trout feed, especially in the earlier part of the 

 season, before they have begun freely to enter the 

 rapid and shallow water. Indeed the very largest 

 trout of all, perhaps, never come fairly into the shal- 

 lows except at night, and if the angler wants a three- 

 pounder, he must try for it with fly or minnow in some 

 such place as we have described. 



Trout-flies for the Tweed, too, beneficially admit of 

 greater variety, and of more fanciful combinations of 

 colour, than those employed in its tributaries. For 

 instance, a " drake- wing" — that is, a fly with the wing 

 formed from the black and white barred feather of the 

 teal or wild drake — is not, according to our experience, 

 a very telling fly in small waters, but in the Tweed 

 we have often found it the very best that could be used, 

 and always found it doing a fair share of work. In- 

 deed, several years ago, when angling in the Tweed 

 pretty constantly, we entertained so high an opinion 

 of the merits of the drake as generally to use it as 

 the tail-fly. It may be dressed with either a black or 

 a red hackle — very slight — and may be used, according 

 to season or the state of the water, of all sizes, from 

 the whitling-fly down to the midge. In colonred water, 

 the " Professor" — an invention of Professor Wilson's — 

 which is the drake wing and hackle with a body formed 

 of orange-silk, is very effective in the Tweed. 



This part of the Tweed used to attract many anglers 

 to the inn at Clovenford, on Caddon-water (which 

 joins the Tweed about a mile below Ashiesteel) before 



