TROUT INSECTS FOR MAY 



trout. This splendid fly, alternated with the 

 brown drake, both tied on No. 6 or No. 8 hooks, 

 would be unequaled for use in the last week in 

 May and the first week in June. However good 

 this fly is known far and wide to be, personally I 

 should give it second place to the female shad-fly 

 when that insect is rising and laying its eggs. 



Xo. 2. Brown drake (March brown). This 

 has always been a prime favorite with both angler 

 and trout. As for myself, whenever I see a cloud 

 of these drakes joyfully flitting over the water, I 

 put awa}^ other flies, and fish more earnestly than 

 ever with the English dry fly imitation. The imi- 

 tation of this insect by English fly-makers seems 

 to me better than that made by American fly-mak- 

 ers; but neither imitation is true to nature in rep- 

 resenting the under body dark when the insect is 

 a light pale yellow underneath. The tail, also, 

 should be cocked up, a detached body above the 

 hook, and the stylets of greater length. 



While isolated specimens of the brown drake are 

 seen toward the end of April, in the warmer 

 weather of May these insects gradually become 

 more and more abundant on the Beaverkill, flitting 

 up and down over the water, sometimes fifteen feet 

 in the air, where occasionally the sexes meet and 

 fall together to the surface of the water, when they 

 are greedily taken up by the trout. The pliable, 

 long, fat body of this insect soon fills up what space 



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