312 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



and paddling with several feet he has under his belly, 

 upon the water, without stirring a wing : but the Drake 

 will mount steeple-high into the air, though he is to be 

 found upon flags and grass too, and indeed everywhere 

 high and low, near the river ; there being so many of them 

 in their season, as were they not a very inoffensive insect, 

 would look like a plague ; and these drakes, since I forgot 

 to tell you before, I will tell you here, are taken by the fish 

 to that incredible degree, that, upon a calm day^, you shall 

 see the still deeps continually all over circles by the fishes 

 rising, who will gorge themselves with those flies, till they 

 purge again out of their gills ; and the trouts are at that 

 time so lusty and strong, that one of eight or ten inches 

 long, will then more struggle, and tug, and more endanger 

 your tackle, than one twice as big in winter ; but pardon 

 this digression. 



This STONE-FLY then, we dape or dibble with, as with 

 the DRAKE, but with this difference, that whereas the 

 GREEN-DRAKE is common both to stream and still, and to 

 all hours of the day, we seldom dape with this but in the 

 streams (for in a whistling wind a made-fly in the deep, 

 is better), and rarely, but early and late, it not being so 

 proper for the mid-time of the day ; though a great gray- 

 ling will then take it very well in a sharp stream, and here 

 and there, a trout too, but much better toward eight, nine, 

 ten, or eleven of the clock at night, at which time also the 

 best fish rise, and the later the better, provided you can see 

 your fly ; and when you cannot, a made-fly will murder, 

 which is to be made thus : the dubbing, of bear's dun, 

 with a little brown and yellow camlet very well mixed, 

 but so placed that your fly may be more yellow on the belly 

 and towards the tail, underneath, than in any other 

 part ; and you are to place two or three hairs of a black 

 cat's beard on the top of the hook, in your arming, so as 

 to be turned up when you warp on your dubbing, and to 

 stand almost upright, and staring one from another ; 



