162 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



cock hackles, silver pheasant's tail and many 

 more : and for body, wools of all sorts and 

 colours, quill, silk, tinsel, gut, straw, india- 

 rubber, gold beaters skin, cork, goat's hair, 

 grass, and numberless more. 



RED SPINNER. 



'In the beginning of May a good fly, the body 

 roddyd (i.e. ruddy) wool, and lapped about 

 with black silk : the wings of the drake and 

 of the red capons hackle.' Thus was the fly 

 fished during the Wars of the Roses, and thus 

 in all essentials was it fished during the Great 

 War. 'Body, dark red brown silk, ringed with 

 fine gold thread; legs, a red hackle; tail, three 

 wisps of the same; wings, a dark shiny brown 

 feather, the more brilliant and transparent the 

 better.' This, it is true, is not quite modern, 

 for it is the dressing given by Francis fifty 

 years ago, but it prevails to this day, as can 

 be seen by walking into any tackle shop. Is it 

 not amazing that the fly should be unchanged 

 during nearly five hundred years ? It is a much 

 more remarkable case than the Stonefly or 

 Mayfly : that great blatant creature the Stone- 

 fly, forcing himself on our notice like an 

 overgrown puppy, or that lovely and delicate 

 lady the Mayfly, trimming her lateen sails to 

 the June breezes, are too notable to be over- 

 looked, and too clearly patterned for diversity 

 of copy; but a slight indefinite insect like the 



