60 FLY FISHING AND SPINNING 



be taken, and indeed which is being taken, at any moment 

 by the fish; there may also be a variation of much importance 

 in the size, colour and appearance of the different hatches 

 of the same family, and to be successful under ordinary 

 circumstances the greatest care should be exercised in 

 determining this point. 



Take the May fly as an instance and consider the very 

 great variety in the size, colour and appearance of these 

 ephemeridae. Each season, nay each day, nay each 

 hour of each May fly season, will probably produce a varia- 

 tion in its flying insect, which it would be well for the fisher- 

 man to note. I had recently sent to me by Mr. Cummins of 

 Bishop Auckland a sample box of May fly in which there 

 were fifty-eight distinct patterns, and, varied as they were 

 in colour and size, I did not see one which did not recall 

 some specimen of May fly which I have seen and used in the 

 different waters of the Northern Hemisphere. 



A May fly of some particular colouring and size may 

 establish a premier position as a lure during any one season 

 in any one district, and yet be almost useless the following 

 year on the same water. It may be that these water 

 insects are protean in their colouring, and that their changes 

 of colouring are protective ; but of one thing the fisherman 

 may be certain, that no attention can be too great to give 

 to the exact size, colour, etc., of the fly or flies which are 

 to be seen on the water he is fishing. No matter how 

 killing a fly may be at any one minute, a sudden rise of the 

 fish will occur at some other variety of fly during the next 

 moment, and directly the fisherman recognizes that his fly 

 is unnoticed by a rising fish, his rod should be discarded in 

 favour of the fly net, and each floating or flying insect should 

 be captured and carefully examined. Say that I have been 

 fishing with an Olive Quill which has been killing well, and 

 though the fish are still rising, my Olive Quill fails to attract 



