375 SALMON AND TROUT. 



generally feed on ihe spent gnat, and rise very quietly and with 

 no more commotion in the water than the mark of a minnow. 

 It may be laid down as a rule that the best fish usually feed 

 well on the nymph and spent gnat, and badly on the subimago. 

 The reason probably is that when they are well on the nymph 

 and take, or try to take, an occasional winged fly just out of the 

 shuck, they are often baulked by the drake managing to fly 

 away just at the moment they are rising ; hence they avoid the 

 subimago, and keep on feeding on the nymph. After a time 

 they find very few nymphs, and then naturally come on to the 

 imago, which, lying flat on the water with its wings extended, 

 is unable to fly, and falls an easy prey to the trout. 



Although, as a rule, the spent gnat is more plentiful on the 

 water in the evening, and even sometimes after dark, yet occa- 

 sionally trout during the day will prefer the imitation of it to 

 that of the Green Drake. A week or more after the fly is over, 

 trout taking duns will often be tempted by a spent gnat : it 

 seems as if the memory of the flavour lingers in their minds. 

 In wet weather great execution is sometimes wrought with the 

 May-fly. Though heavy work to dry the fly thoroughly, it is none 

 the less necessary to do so, and a perfectly dry cocked May-fly 

 on a rainy day is almost certain death to a rising trout. It is, 

 of course, more difficult to cast against the wind with a May-fly 

 than with a small dun, but with a short length of gut and the 

 use of the horizontal cast or downward cut it can be done. 



A half-hour before the hatch of the drake, the Alder or 

 Welshman's Button are often taken, and at times these or the 

 Kimbridge sedge are taken in preference to the May-fly itself, 

 even during the thickest of the rise. Sometimes, with a good 

 show of the Ephemera on the water, none of the many patterns 

 known will rise the trout. In such a case try Flight's Fancy 

 dressed on a oo hook, or, if this should prove unsuccessful, the 

 Wickham or Pink Wickham on hooks o or i. If this will not 

 tempt them, as a last resource try a sedge dressed large on hook 

 No. 2 or 3. Perhaps the best pattern of sedge is that known 

 ar, the Kimbridge, dressed thus ; 



