THE FOOD OF A TROUT. 35 



and wave made by a fish as he jumps clean out of water. 

 We will now go on down stream, keeping well away from 

 the water, as we don't want to frighten the fish. Trout, 

 as I said before, lie with their heads up stream; and their 

 attention is thus directed to any food which may come 

 floating down toward them either on or below the surface 

 of the water ; it is necessary, therefore, for the fisherman 

 to find out what the trout are feeding on, and then 

 present this food to them in the most natural manner 

 possible. The wet fly fisherman does this by sinking his flies 

 below the surface, and dropping them down stream toward 

 the fish, and the dry fly fisherman throws his fly on the 

 surface of the water and lets it float down to the fish. 



The food which the wet or dry fly fisherman has to 

 imitate, in order to attract and secure the trout, are the 

 various forms of water insects either in their pupa, 

 sub-imago, or imago state. During the larval stages of 

 the ephemeridae they pass into the pupal condition 

 of their life, which is the metamorphism, while still 

 under water, preceding their adult life. This latter is 

 known first as the sub-imago, and after as the imago or 

 perfected flying state. The transition from the pupa to the 

 sub-imago is quite naturally, though erroneously, alluded 

 to by most fishermen as " hatching." The water insect is 

 hatched when it enters the larval stage of life, not when it 

 undergoes the metamorphosis into the pupa, the sub-imago, 

 or imago state. 



D 2 



