HAUNTS OF SEA TROUT. 87 



Scott and tlie Blue Doctor) mentioned in this book, tied small, 

 are good; but in some rivers tbe fish will only take large 

 salmon-flies. On other streams, again, small brook-trout flies 

 are used; and should, at any time, the fish rise short, I strongly 

 recommend a change to smaller flies. On the vagaries of sea 

 trout in different streams the angler must, of course, obtain 

 local information, to which he should not, however, trust too 

 implicitly. The Irish flies are sober-coloured patterns, some- 

 thing after the nature of March Browns, and quite unlike the 

 Scotch patterns ; yet I have found them kill in Scotland quite 

 as well as the local flies. A particularly good fly is a large 

 Wickham's Fancy, and a large March Brown is also very 

 killing at times. Both Black and E-ed Palmers kill well on 

 the West Coast of Scotland, and a fly known as Green and 

 Teal* is killing almost everywhere. Most of the brighter- 

 coloured lake-flies are good for sea trout, particularly the 

 Dark Clarets with silver tinsel. Then there is the favourite 

 flyf of the late Francis Francis, and a host of others, the 

 dressings of which are to be found in " A Book on Angling." 

 When fly-fishing for sea trout in rivers, many anglers work 

 their flies as if they were fishing for salmon. Personally, I 

 adhere to no rule, more often than not, perhaps, casting across 

 the stream, and drawing my cast back with the top dropper just 

 dancing and bobbing along the surface. That method usually 

 answers as well as any other ; but when one style of working the 

 fly fails, another should be tried. Some days the fish seem to 

 like the fly worked fast; at other times the flies kill best if worked 

 slowly, and allowed to sink. In rivers the fish will be found in 

 long stretches of water which are neither very deep nor very 

 rapid. They will also be found on the shallows at the tails of 

 pools ; but in pools near the sea, in deeper water. In lakes, the 

 best spots are nearly always on the edge of weeds, ofE rocky 



* Body, baize-coloured pigswool. Wing, teal, with a few strands of jungle-cock 

 and red feather, and tail jungle-cock. 



t Tail, a short tuft of orange-yellow floss silk [or seal fur.— J. B.]. Body, a dark 

 ruddy brown or brown-red (something the colour of dark red hair) pigswool, fine 

 silver twist. Hackle, coch-y-bondu (red with black centre). Wing, two strips of 

 bright teal. Three sizes of this fly should be kept, from the largest to the smallest 

 sea-trout size. 



