294 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



this is to be made of a mixed dubbing of marten's fur, 

 and the white of a hare's scut, with a very white and 

 small wing ; and it is no great matter how fine you 

 fish, for nothing will rise in this month but a grayling ; 

 and of them I never, at this season, saw any taken with 

 a fly, of above a foot long in my life : but of little ones 

 about the bigness of a smelt, in a warm day, and a glowing 

 sun, you may take enough with these two flies, and they 

 are both taken the whole month through. 



FEBRUARY 



1. Where the red-brown of the last month ends, 

 another almost of the same colour begins, with this 

 saving, that the dubbing of this must be of something 

 a blacker colour, and both of them wrapt on with red 

 silk. The dubbing that should make this fly, and that 

 is the truest colour, is to be got off the black spot of 

 a hog's ear : not that a black spot in any part of the 

 hog will not afford the same colour, but that the hair 

 in that place is, by many degrees, softer, and more 

 fit for the purpose. His wing must be as the other 

 [1. in January] ; and this kills all this month, and is 

 called the lesser red-brown. 



2. This month, also, a plain hackle, or palmer-fly, 

 made with a rough black body, either of black spaniel's 

 fur, or the whirl of an ostrich feather, and the red hackle 

 of a capon over all, will kill, and, if the weather be right, 

 make very good sport. 



3. Also a lesser hackle, with a black body, also silver 

 twist over that, and a red feather over all, will fill your 

 pannier, if the month be open, and not bound up in 

 ice and snow, with very good fish ; but, in case of a 

 frost and snow, you are to angle only with the smallest 

 gnats, browns, and duns you can make ; and with 

 those are only to expect graylings no bigger than sprats. 



4. In this month, upon a whirling round water, we 



