64 FLY FISHING. 



garb ; the grey being the female in her matron's attire, and the 

 black the male in the more sober costume of advanced life. In 

 their first clothing I have always found them most attractive, the 

 reason of which probably is, that in their latter form the wings, 

 from their gauze-like texture are so exceedingly tender, that they 

 are destroyed the moment they come in contact with the water, 

 which gives them a drowned and less tempting appearance ; but 

 as this fiy last some days longer than the green drake, it is in the 

 latter part of the May fly season the fly the trout are on the look 

 out for, and will at that time answer the better of the two 

 when well artificially imitated. 



In general most execution is to be done by dapping with the 

 natural May fly, as in the fine weather that generally occurs in 

 lhat season of the year, an imitation so large is not so likely to 

 deceive a wary trout in very limpid waters, and in which he has so 

 many opportunities of comparing the copy with the original ; but 

 on a dark blustering day I have done very wonders with the 

 artificial May fly. I have indeed, when it has been blowing a 

 brisk gale, taken some very good trout with the artificial May fly 

 even as early as April, and I have known many who have taken 

 good fish in stormy weather by adopting the same plan whenever 

 such weather occurs. But it is not altogether a fly I would re- 

 commend to be used out of its season, as it makes rather a heavy 

 splash in dropping on the water, which is very apt to excite the 

 suspicions of the fishes who, like some of our neighbours, are apt 

 to mistrust whatever it is beyond the scope of their intellect to 

 comprehend ; and here we see the fishes are in the right, as are 

 doubtless sometimes our neighbours. 



As the green drake is a large fly, greater attention will be re- 

 quired to form the imitations of corresponding colours and dimen- 

 sions than in those of smaller size, which has not been attended 

 to as it ought to have been in most of the specimens we may find 

 in the fishing tackle shops, many of which are much more likely 

 to be mistaken for a white moth than a May fly; and with such as 

 these it is not to be wondered that the angler should invariably 

 meet with disappointment. The sort of flies I allude to are those 

 trimmed with a corpulant body of white wool, ribbed with a bold 

 red hackle, with wings of a grey feather of a mallard, dyed when 

 intended to imitate the green drake, and left of their original 

 colour when intended for the grey. Now with the exception of 



