44 THE WONDERFUL TROUT 



Well, no, of course not : or at least, what he 

 may have seen was not known by that fancy 

 name. [The synonymy of artificial flies is 

 nearly as big a curse as the black gnat.] 

 But, however that may be, Stewart did not 

 include it in his list. And there can be no 

 doubt of its deadly character, either as a 

 floating-bob, or a sunk fly, or with a wing or 

 with only a ragged torn body, not only in 

 Scottish streams but also in Hungary and 

 the Tyrol and in New Zealand. 



We do not go with Stewart in his singularly 

 meagre list of standards, good though these 

 undoubtedly are. Stewart in one place seems 

 to consider (p. 81) that a certain colour is 

 more deadly because more readily seen, i.e. 

 by the fish, and he instances a black fly as 

 unsurpassed in clear water. We agree with 

 this to some extent, but he says nothing 

 about a ' black hackle ' being one of the most 

 deadly flies in a dark night on Loch Earn, 

 for instance. Or again, what can be said of 

 the grey partridge 'spider' or hackle 

 light, red, or orange in clear, low streams in 

 summer, with an equally clear sky ? We 

 believe in most circumstances the colours of 



