CHANGE OF FLIES 131 



the water, and a salmon make a fruitless dart at it. 

 It chanced that I had made some large salmon 

 flies with white wings, in imitation of a pattern that 

 was formerly the fashion for trout fishing, and was 

 called, I know not why, the coachman. One of these 

 I immediately looped to my line : the fish, no doubt 

 taking it for the butterfly that he saw flitting above 

 him, came at it at once, and I took him. When 

 he was landed, Walter's astonishment was great 

 when he saw the fly, and he made a dozen imitations 

 of it before he laid his head on the pillow. I should 

 not think that under other circumstances such a fly 

 would be alluring.* 



When a man toils a long time without success, he 

 is apt to attribute his failure to the using an improper 

 fly ; so he changes his book through, till at last, 

 perhaps, he catches fish. The fly, with which he 

 achieves this, is naturally enough a favourite ever 

 afterwards, and probably without reason : the 

 cause of success might be in the change of air and 

 temperature of the water ; and the same thing 

 would probably have occurred if he had persevered 

 with the same fly with which he began. When the 

 night has been frosty, salmon will not stir till the 

 water has received the genial warmth of the day ; 

 and there are a thousand hidden causes of obstruc- 

 tion which we, who are not fish, know nothing 

 about. 



As an instance, I once fished over a short stream 



* I have heard that the Coachman was named after its inventor, 

 an angler of old days who used to fish in the Middlesex Colne. It is 

 a famous trout fly, still used everywhere. (ED.) 



