FLY FISHING. 83 



It is now high time to offer a few observations on angling with 

 the natural fly, as well as to set forth such insects as are best 

 adapted for the purpose. Of these the green drake ranks preemi- 

 nently first throughout the greater part of the kingdom, being so 

 tempting a bait, that many anglers consider fishing with this fly in 

 its natural state as little better than a system of poaching, by 

 which persons who at other times would toil all day and catch no- 

 thing, manage at this season to take the best trout in the water ; 

 and it is therefore contended that if those proprietors who liberally 

 permit their waters to be fished, were to close them during the 

 May fly season, no real sportsman would be disappointed, and half 

 the fish would thereby be saved. This I consider would bear ra- 

 ther too hard on the, " toil all day and catch nothing anglers,'* 

 whose labours surely ought now and then to be crowned with suc- 

 cess : and though I am ready to admit to the full the annoyance 

 of encountering an angler at every whip and turn of the river, 

 and finding nearly every inch of the stream has been previously fish- 

 ed by half the bumpkins of the neighbourhood, yet for all this, so 

 boldly do the trout feed at this time, that an angler who is blessed 

 with skill, may generally reckon upon coming in for his fair por- 

 tion of the spoil, and need not make himself unhappy with the 

 supposition that fish enough will not after all be left for his future 

 diversion. As far indeed as my limited experience has gone, I 

 have reason to believe that the nets of the poacher, and that too 

 frequently by the connivance of the water keepers where gentle- 

 men try strictly to preserve their fish, destroy more in the course 

 of a single night than all the May fly fishers during the whole sea- 

 son. I was once very much amused by the account an intimate 

 friend gave me of a netting affair of which he was an eye witness, 

 that took place in some preserved waters of an old gentleman he 

 well knew who was mighty tenacious over his fish ; like a thorough 

 dog in the manger, neither fishing there himself, or allowing any one 

 else to do so. Now it so happened that for some purpose or other 

 the old fellow was desirous to obtain a handsome dish of trout, 

 so in order to make sure of a catch he desired his keeper to procure 

 one of the most poaching rascals of the neighbourhood to attend 

 there with his nets, and though the joint labours of the poacher 

 and keeper were not rewarded with the success that might have 

 been expected, yet it was really wonderful to see how well they 

 worked together, and how every stump and obstacle was to be 



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