FLY FISHING FOR TROUT 29 



using the alder. But far more often the down- 

 stream method is efficacious. I was sent last year 

 a pattern of a small partridge hackle fly which had 

 killed several good trout on the Mimram, all tailing 

 fish. On enquiry I found that the fisherman, a 

 clergyman who, like most of the cloth who are 

 anglers, is a capital performer with the rod, had caught 

 these fish by casting up-stream and letting the fly 

 sink just above where they were feeding. It cannot, 

 of course, be expected that as good a basket can be 

 obtained when trout are ' tailing,' as when they are 

 rising. Nevertheless no one need despair of killing 

 some * warrantable ' fish when he sees not noses, but 

 tails, breaking the surface of the river he is about to 

 exploit. 



As I have before mentioned, hackle flies are 

 most useful. In fact, winged ones (always except- 

 ing the alder) are really not worth thinking about 

 in connection with ' tailing ' trout. Palmers, Zulus, 

 spiders, all do execution. But the fisherman must 

 not expect that a 'tailer' will be incited to hook 

 himself at once. Endless perseverance will in all 

 probability have to be exercised. For remember 

 that a trout feeding in this fashion is rather like 

 a man enjoying a particularly good dinner, to whom 

 a strange and incongruous dish is suddenly offered 



