126 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



as many legs as a centipede. Hackle, of course, represents 

 wings as well as legs, but still fineness and transparency, 

 not solidity nor opacity, are the qualities you want. You 

 should have in your box imitations of the flying ants for use 

 on hot days in high summer or autumn, when the ants are 

 taking wing, and something you must have to amuse yourself 

 with by offering to the fish, even if they do not seem to amuse 

 the trout at all, when nothing but smut are being taken. 

 Add an Iron Blue or two and some Tups and a few spidery 

 patterns for fish that are taking submerged flies — I do not 

 speak of the absolute " bulgers," which are seldom worth 

 fishing for, so remote is the chance of catching them — 

 and therewith I believe you are fully set out. I do not 

 suppose for a moment, nor wish, that you should restrict 

 yourself to this moderation. If the flies do not count for 

 quite as much as is generally thought in the number of fish 

 killed, they count hugely in the fun of the fishing, and in all the 

 discussions about it of which anglers never tire, though they 

 often make those who are not anglers very tired with them 

 (but what do the feelings of a non-angler signify ?), and a 

 fisherman will not get all the delight that he ought to out 

 of his high calling if he concerns himself with the fish alone 

 of the people in the water. He will find his interest and 

 pleasure much broadened if he will study the water weeds, 

 and the water insects, molluscs, crustaceans, and so on. 

 These creatures feed on the weeds, and the fish feed on these 

 lesser creatures. For my own part I love the whole range 

 of " Fly-fisher's Entomology " from Ronalds to my late 

 friend and master, Mr. Frederic Halford, but I do not much 

 believe in the scientific entomology as studied by the trout. 

 Give him a good likeness of the shape and size of the real 

 thing, and above all present it to him with as close a likeness 

 as is possible to the way in which the natural insect presents 

 itself. Do that and he will not be so discourteous as to look 

 your gift microscopically in the mouth to inspect the colouring. 

 Again, as always, consider the question you are putting to 

 him from his point of view, for that is the point on which the 

 answer hangs. 



Now, the majority of these flies, when you present them 

 to the fish, you will wish to come floating down to them on the 



