SG 



yellow tluns putty-coloiiied oplieinera. Giavi'l-l)i'(ls were, 

 at oue time, the commonest of our early flies, on all the 

 shallow, gravelly bottomed lengths of the river. But I 

 have not seen a single living specimen upon this stream 

 for the past three years. No doubt these mysterious dis- 

 appearances are due to the hatch-out of flies being killed 

 oft" by frost}' nights. There is no royal road to the selection 

 of the right fly for this river, but the angler should en- 

 deavour to match the insects upon which the trout are feed- 

 ino-. Taking- the months in their order I should recom- 

 mend the following : — 



AjDril. — Dark, medium, and pale olives, whirling blues, 

 claret spinners, and March browns. 



May. — Iron blues, black gnats, grey quills, and alders, 

 during the day, and govenors for the evening rise. 



June. — May-fly, as long as it lasts, yellow duns, blue 

 winged, badger hackle midges, and small soldier palmers, 

 in addition to any of the other flies that may be seen upon 

 the water. 



July and August. — Pale watery olives, tail-to-tail 

 midges, grey quill, with flat silver body and badger hackle, 

 red quill, with gold body, for use in bright sunshine. These 

 flat tinselled bodied flies are very effective in a blazing sun- 

 shine on a perfectly calm and glassy surface when the " sky 

 is of copper and the river of brass." E-ed spinners, brown 

 sedges, and silver-ribbed white moths, may be added to 

 govenors for the evening rise. 



As to the size of flies, IN'o. is the most useful, after the 

 first month of the season, but the flies for evening fishing 

 should be dressed on TsTo. 1 hooks. I do not profess to have 

 given an exhaustive list in the foregoing, but the angler 

 who fishes the Darenth with the flies named will not go far 

 wrong. 



Too much stress cannot be put upon the absolute 

 necessity of using fine tackle for the water is so shallow and 

 bright that it is waste of time to cast over fish with coarse 

 gut. I use the very finest natural gut down to the three 

 last links and these taper from x to xx and xxx drawn at 



