]30 A FEW FLIES ONLY NECESSARY. 



as to the occasional necessity for using imitations 

 of prevailing species, and have laid down the 

 general rule of confining the sorts of flies in 

 common use to a very limited number. It is 

 impossible to give infallible directions for the use 

 of particular flies at every particular time, although 

 we shall elsewhere do all we consider necessary. 

 Much must be left to the angler's own judg- 

 ment ; but we advise him to be careful of falling 

 into the error of constantly changing his flies 

 when fishing, thereby perplexing himself, and, 

 generally speaking, wasting time. Fish are pro- 

 verbially capricious ; and many of their habits, in 

 regard to feeding and otherwise, depend on cir- 

 cumstances which, with all our knowledge of 

 natural history, are not understood. The angler, 

 therefore, must not be too ready to attribute his 

 want of success at any time to a mistake in the 

 selection of his fly. There are many circum- 

 stances to which it may with greater justice be 

 traced. For instance, a certain fly is often 

 thoughtlessly said to be refused by fish on the 

 sole account of its dissimilarity to some supposed 

 favourite species, when a little observation would 

 lead to another conclusion, a conclusion perhaps 

 very different from the probably correct one, in 

 many cases, of the unskilfulness of the angler. 



