ROD & CREEL 41 



names of most of them and had no idea where they were meant 

 to be used. 



It is quite likely that every one of the vast assortment of 

 flies that are made will, under certain conditions, in certain 

 waters, be of some value; a small number of them will kill fish 

 always in certain waters under favourable conditions; while 

 possibly one or two will kill fish in any waters at any time it is 

 possible to catch fish if the fly is presented to the fish in a suffi- 

 ciently enticing manner. So far I myself have never attained 

 sufficient skill, or have never discovered, those one or two flies. 

 I have, however, known quite a number of men who never 

 used more than three or four flies and I have heard of one man, 

 and only one amongst the vast number of fly fishermen I have 

 known and read of, who used only one fly. This man fished in 

 England with the "dry fly" using, I believe, a "Red Quill 

 Gnat" regardless of what flies were on the water, and it is said 

 that he could equal if not beat almost anybody else; that he 

 could catch fish if they were to be caught. Such a man as this 

 must have most extraordinary skill arid be able to present the 

 fly to the fish in such a tempting manner that they simply had 

 to take it. 



However, few men can ever hope to attain such skill, and 

 we must, therefore, use more flies, endeavouring as far as pos- 

 sible, to reduce the number to its smallest limits. 



In the list of flies I am giving, you can fish this Province 

 and most likely the whole of the continent from one end to the 

 other and catch trout if they are to be caught. Those given 

 on the illustrated plate are the principal ones and these alone 

 should be ample except on special occasions. Even this num- 

 ber can be considerably reduced especially if you are going to 

 confine your fishing to any particular district, but there are cer- 

 tain of these flies you should always have, no matter where you 

 are going to fish or during what month. These flies are the 

 March Browns of various kinds, Black Gnat, Royal Coachman, 

 Teal and Red, Teal and Yellow and the Jock Scott, either the 

 Montreal or Grouse and Claret (both very much alike) and the 

 Brown and B'lack Hackles. 



You must also have most of the flies on different sized 

 hooks. Those sold in the stores are nearly always too large. 

 Much will, of coarse, depend on the water you are going to 

 fish, but as a general rule use small flies, particularly so if the 

 water is bright and clear or fish are rising short. Sometimes 

 you will find an old moth-eaten bedraggled fly will kill when 

 nothing else will. Of course, these are exceptions, sometimes 

 w r hen fish are taking well a big fly will do better execution, as 

 the following incident will illustrate. 



I was fishing a lake where there were a lot of fish rising, 

 but what they were taking I could not discover. Some of the 



