THE FLY QUESTION 117 



done much for me, the olive (red) spinner. I have 

 found that invaluable on many occasions, but I 

 have been able to do very little with any of the 

 others, and the old range of simple hackles still 

 holds its own. 



In giving my impressions on the subject of flies 

 I am acutely conscious that they are only of value 

 as showing what happens to one angler of unscientific 

 mind. Many of the flies which I find unsuccessful, 

 or, more probably, have never sufficiently tried, 

 are greatly valued by others. When I look into 

 such a volume as Mr. Leonard West's The Natural 

 Trout Fly and its Imitation I see a great variety of 

 patterns which are obviously good killers and which 

 have never come within my scheme at all. And 

 then there are the new doctrines of " impression- 

 ism " in fly-dressing, set forth by Dr. Mottram 

 and others, the chase of the silhouette, the fashion- 

 ing of shaped bodies, the use of hackles fore and 

 aft, and so on. Both for wet flies (nymphs) and 

 dry flies I believe the new conventions are more 

 likely to achieve accuracy in imitation from the 

 trout's point of view than did most of the old ones 

 Dr. Francis Ward's optical experiments taught us 

 many things, but I confess that so far I have 

 not found in practical fishing any absolute necessity 

 to renounce the old in favour of the new. 



