BAIT FOR TROUT. 107 



to ten dozen each ; and in only two cases had the contend- 

 ing parties a single fly alike ! 



In addition to these statements, we must be allowed to 

 add, that we fished one entire season for trout with only 

 two kinds of flies the red and black palmer; and we 

 were as successful on the whole period as any of our 

 angling competitors. 



Now these statements and facts are introduced, not 

 with a view of enforcing, in a dogmatical spirit, any 

 general rules for the government of fly-fishers, but solely 

 to guard young beginners from falling into a fidgetty and 

 fastidious habit of perpetually changing flies, whenever 

 their success is not commensurate with their hopes. We 

 never knew a fancy angler with an old bit of gut. The 

 fact is, there are general rules in this art as well as in 

 every other; but they must be deduced from carefully 

 collated facts. One grain of reasoning founded on expe- 

 rience is worth a ton of theory and speculation in such 

 cases. 



There is a fertile source of deception as to the trout's 

 fondness for particular flies which deserves our notice; it 

 is this: having cast our line over a stream, when we 

 draw it across, the bob-fly is the first which by the me- 

 chanical process can solicit the attention of the fish. 

 When, therefore, trout are in the humour, this will, in 

 the majority of cases, appear to be the favourite fly, and 

 the angler notes down on the " tablet of his memory" 

 that such is really the case. We have often changed the 

 flies on this account, with a view to testing the fact. 

 That which seemed to be the favourite fly was put on the 

 stretcher, and an entirely different fly mounted as the 

 bob, and yet the result was just the same; the latter 

 became apparently the favourite fly, and the stretcher was 

 comparatively neglected. 



