42 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



Dennys' description of the trout. This fish, 

 says Law son, gives the most gentlemanly and 

 readiest sport of all, if you fish with an arti- 

 ficial fly, a line twice your rod's length of three 

 hairs' thickness, in open water free from trees 

 on a dark windy afternoon, and if you have 

 learned the cast of the fly. That is the first 

 mention of fly casting. Your fly must imitate 

 the Mayfly, which Lawson thought was bred of 

 a caddis and called the Water Fly, and he gives 

 a picture, the first ever given of an artificial 

 fly. It resembles a house fly on a hook more 

 than anything. The colour of the body must 

 change every month, starting with a dark 

 white, and growing to yellow as the season 

 advances. The body should be of crewel of a 

 colour appropriate to the month, ribbed with 

 black hair, the head of black hair or silk, and 

 the wings of mallard teal or pickled (speckled) 

 hen's wing. 'You must fish in, or hard by, the 

 stream, and have a quick hand and a ready eye 

 and a nimble rod, strike with him or you loose 

 him. If the winde be rough and trouble the 

 crust of the water, hee will take it in the plaine 

 deeps, and then, and there comonly the greatest 

 will arise. When you have hookt him, give him 

 leave, keeping your Line stright, and hold him 

 from rootes and he will tyre himself e. This is 

 the chief e pleasure of Angling.' It is difficult 

 to beat that description. He evidently knew a 

 great deal about the habits of fish. 'The Trout 

 lies in the deep, but feeds in the streame, under 



