FLY FISHING. 67 



become so inflated, that the fish is unable to sink itself below the 

 surface, in which helpless state it may easily be captured. I myself 

 have sometimes in very hot oppressive weather noticed large shoals 

 of the grey gurnard swimming with their noses above water, and 

 refusing every bait that was offered, though few fish are usually 

 found that bite more freely. I have also remarked the same with 

 respect to the mackerel, though in that fish the air bladder is 

 wanting ; as it is in every one of the flounder tribe, not one of 

 whom, from a turbot to a sraeardab, will ever take a bait freely 

 when there is thunder in the air. Porpoises also who breathe 

 through lungs after the manner of terrestial animals, are neverthe- 

 less extremely affected by this kind of weather, coming frequently 

 to the surface, and tumbling and rolling about in a state of evident 

 uneasiness. And yet eels are known to bite more eagerly during 

 a thunder storm than at any other time. 



The best flies for July are the wren hackle, the orange fly, the 

 gauze wing, and two small ephemeral flies, called the yellow dun 

 and July dun. All these flies may also be fished with during the 

 whole of August and the early part of September, at and after 

 which time most of the spring flies may be again resorted to. 



The wren hackle is intended to imitate a very small beetle- 

 winged fly called the frog hopper, so called from his progressive 

 motions being by a series of extended hops like that reptile, mul- 

 titudes of which the insect not the frogs may be seen at this 

 season of the year hopping with wonderful celerity from one blade 

 of grass to another, so quickly indeed as to be scarcely visible in 

 their transit. Of these some are found of a brown, and others of 

 a green colour, but those in which the latter colour prevails, being 

 very difficult to imitate, and the merits of the former equally ap- 

 preciated by the fishes, that insect alone is usually attempted to be 

 copied. To effect this the body should be made of ginger 

 coloured fur, with the feather of a wren's wing or tail wound on 

 for a hackle ; and if a wren's feather cannot be procured, a small 

 mottled feather from a Woodcock's wing will answer the purpose 

 nearly as well. The real insect being so very small, the imitations 

 must be made accordingly. The orange fly is nearly as small an 

 insect, bearing some resemblance to the ant fly, only that the lower 

 part of the body is of a bright orange colour with a black tip at 

 the end. In the artificial fly the body must be made full of bright 

 orange floss silk, inclining towards scarlet, with a turn or two of 



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