308 THE PKACTICAL FISHEBMAN. 



The attentive reader will recognise in the foregoing slight list some 

 replica of the flies given by Eonalds, and though the variation made is 

 slight, the difference, nevertheless, is advantageous to the angler. The 

 following remark by Sir Humphry Davy, the great chemist, in connec- 

 tion with the same matter, will prove instructive. I transcribe it in 

 full because nobody can improve on its compression. He says : " In 

 March the dark-bodied willow fly may be regarded as the earliest fly j 

 the imitation of which is made by a dark claret dubbing and a dun hackle, 

 or four small starling's wing feathers. The blue dun comes on in the 

 middle of the day in this month, and is imitated by dun hackles for wings 

 and legs, and an olive dubbing for body. In mild weather, in morning 

 and evening in this month, and through April, the green tail or grannon 

 comes on in great quantities, and is well imitated by a hen pheasant's 

 wing feather, a grey or red hackle for legs, and a dark peacock's hard, 

 or dark hare's ear fur, for the body. The same kind of fly, of a larger 

 size, with palm wings, kills well in the evening through May or June. 

 The imitation of a water insect called the spider fly, with a lead-coloured 

 body and woodcock's wings, is said to be a killing bait on this and other 

 rivers, in the end of April and beginning of May ; but I never happened 

 to see it on the water. The dark alder fly, in May and June, is taken 

 greedily by the fish; it is imitated by a dark-shaded pheasant's wing, 

 black hackle for legs, and a peacock's hard, ribbed with red silk, for the 

 body. At this season, and in July, imitations of the black and red 

 palmer worms, which I believe are taken for black or brown or red beetles 

 or cockchaffers, kill well ; and in dark weather there are usually very 

 light duns on the water. In August, imitations of the house fly and 

 blue bottle and the red and black ant fly are taken, and are particularly 

 killing after floods in autumn, when great quantities of the fly are destroyed 

 and washed down the river. In this month, in cloudy days, pale blue 

 duns often appear, and they are still more common in September. 

 Throughout the summer and autumn, in fine calm evenings, a large dun 

 fly, with a pale yellow body, is greedily taken by grayling after sunset, 

 and the imitation of it is very killing." 



The time of striking a grayling is at the moment he breaks the water. 

 But, says some critical reader, grayling do not always break the water. 

 I am willing to admit this, and I can in such case only suggest a "higher 

 education ' ' of the eye, that it may even notice the oily coil of the 

 currents made by the twist of the animal's caudal extremity. And this 

 strike must by no means be a fierce upward stroke of the rod. The 

 tiniest jerk from the wrist is sufficient. A writer whose experience is 

 remarkably large, Mr. W. Bullock, thus writes^ in the Fishing Gazette, 

 anent the fault of vigorous striking, a striking from the elbow and 



