FLY FISHING IN THE SEA 



171 



stripping between their teeth, holding one end of the fibres in 

 their hand. Possibly 



maceration in water ~S^> "00GF/SH TAIL 



-^TsNV FLY 



and removal by scrap- 

 ing with a blunt knife 

 would do nearly as 

 well. The result is 

 from each tail a bunch 

 of bright, whitish-yel- 

 low, fibrous matter, 

 each fibre of which is stouter than 

 an ordinary pig's bristle, but softer, 

 and shines with a lustre like that on 

 very bright seal's fur. This, when 

 dry, is simply tied on a hook of the 

 necessary size, just as the ordinary 

 white feather would be. In the water 

 it softens and shines, and fish will 

 take it when they refuse the com- 

 mon white fly. It lasts a long time if 

 dried after fishing, so that the hook 

 does not rust it. On the north-west 

 coast of Scotland I found a red phan- 

 tom such an extremely killing bait 

 for lythe, i.e. pollack, that I should 

 imagine a large red fly would be very 

 deadly. 



Lythe and cuddies, when close in 

 shore and gorged with food, some- 

 times take a small fiery brown Palmer 

 when white flies are not looked at. 

 Mr. Moodie-Heddle tells me that he 

 has taken a score or two in this 



DOGFISH-TAIL FIBRE FLY 



