ken of mortals. A Tipulida bibri marci, 

 or in piscatorial language, the hawthorn 

 fly, an insect whose life is beneath the 

 surface of the earth eleven months of 

 the year, comes crawling, creeping out 

 of the ground on warm June mornings 

 appareled in new livery. After resting 

 awhile on low herbage, all, as if guided 

 by one impulse, fly to the nearest 

 stream. We have kept those insects 

 for weeks in confinement, and they 

 would neither eat nor drink. But 

 every morning for hours they congre 

 gate over streams. Keeping time with 

 the ripple of the water, they hold a 

 May dance; darting hither and thither, 

 occasionally touching the water to go 

 down the current, or else down the 

 throat of a fish. 



When these bright creatures are 

 holding high carnival above, the trout 

 positively refuse other enticement. 

 The larvae of moths is a favorite fish 

 food, and consequently successful bait. 

 Hibernating larvae are drawn from 

 their retreats in warm spring days, and 

 continue the pilgrimage they com 

 menced the previous fall. In their 

 wild journeyings on and on before 

 spinning the pupa shroud, they fall 

 victims in attempting to cross streams. 



Hairy caterpillars feeding on the 

 trees are blown off by the winds, or 

 their silken thread is broken, as they 

 hang under the leaves in shelter from 

 the rain. Imitations of those known 

 to the American by the familiar term 

 of hackles are to be used after winds 

 or during rajn storms; also that com 

 promise between larvae and image 

 known as the hackle fly. No bait has 

 ever been used that has given as 

 general satisfaction as this anomaly. 

 It is a common remark that fish will 

 not bite before rain. The reason is 

 probably that food is never offered at 

 such times. The natural instinct of 



the insect forbids its leaving the 

 water or flying abroad if rain is threat 

 ening. The breathing-pores are sit 

 uated on the outside of the body 

 near the insertion of the wings. They 

 are soon clogged and closed up by the 

 water, and the down washed from their 

 bodies; their wings draggle and be 

 come powerless, and they suffocate 

 flying in midair. This is the reason 

 winged insects on touching water 

 drown so easily. Insects do not in 

 variably appear at the same times. A 

 cold spring will retard their develop 

 ment for months, while an unusually 

 warm spring or summer will hasten 

 their appearance. Insects in the water 

 are the most affected by changes of 

 temperature. Any guide for a fly- 

 fisher would be almost useless unless 

 this important point were remembered. 

 English works can never become posi 

 tive authorities for our climate. In 

 sects which appear there in vast quan 

 tities are rare here, and vice versa. 

 Some that are single-brooded there are 

 doubled-brooded here. Some that ap^ 

 pear there in one month visit us at 

 another, while we have many alluring 

 baits here that the classic waters of 

 the British Isles would regard with be 

 wildering amazement." 



In fishing with worm for bait, good 

 fishermen say, it is better to choose a 

 still, cloudy day indicating rain, as the 

 fish are then hungry for insects. An 

 expert trout-fisher will begin at the 

 head of a stream and fish down it, al 

 ways keeping some distance from the 

 bank to avoid alarming the fish. 



The speckled beauty, as the brook 

 trout is universally called, as a food 

 fish is by many considered unsurpassed, 

 the flesh being firm and well flavored. 

 Others, however, regard it as only an 

 occasional delicacy. 



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