56 LAZY THEORETICAL ANGLERS. 



killing artificial flies, that they might not have 

 the trouble of changing them, or observing which 

 flies are in season. There is one truth, and one 

 only, in the above extract : viz., that which says 

 fish will freqently, in the drake season, ' prefer a 

 hackle, black, red, or brown, or a dark-coloured 

 fly,' to the imitation of the May-fly. That truth, 

 however, does not strengthen the philosophers' 

 reasoning. Quite the contrary. I have already 

 explained why the artificial green drake is not 

 generally a successful fly. It is the most difficult 

 of all flies to be imitated well. Other artificial 

 flies are better imitations of other real flies, and 

 therefore fish prefer them to the bad imitations 

 of the drake. Another reason why they take f a 

 black, red, brown, or dark-coloured fly,' is that 

 fish, like man, have a versatile appetite. What 

 will the philosophers answer, when I tell them 

 that trout at certain times of the drake season will 

 prefer a small artificial fly to the fine fat living 

 fly ? Unaccountable ! perchance they will say. 

 Not a whit of it. I have seen fish so much gorged 

 and surfeited with the live May-fly, that they 

 would no longer rise at it ; whilst they would rise 

 rapidly, particularly towards evening, at an imita- 

 tion of the common house-fly. What do I con- 

 clude from this ? Not, certainly, that the arti- 

 ficial fly is a better bait than the natural fly at all 

 times, but that it is sometimes, when palled ap- 



