80 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



I confess very few begin so soon, and that such as are so fond of 

 the sport, as to embrace all opportunities, can rarely in that 

 month find a day fit for their purpose, — and tell you, that upon 



what kind of fly is in the water, and to open a fish's stomach to see what 

 kind of fly the fish has been feeding on, are not deserving the least atten- 

 tion. The angler must be guided in his selection of fiies by the state of 

 the water — whether clear or dull, smooth or ruflRed by a breeze ; and also 

 by the state of the weather, as it may be cloudy or bright. When the 

 water is clear, and the day rather bright, small flies and hackles of a dark 

 shade are most likely to prove successful, if used with a fine line and 

 thrown by a delicate hand; but tTren it is only before eight in the morning 

 and after six in the evening, from June to August, that the fish may be 

 expected to rise. When the water, in such weather, is ruffled by a fresh 

 breeze, larger hackles and flies of the same color rnay be used. When the 

 water is clearing after rain, a red hackle, and a fly with a body of orange- 

 colored mohair, dappled wings of a mallard or pea-fowl's feather, with a 

 reddish brown hackle under them, arc liktly to tempt trout, a* any time 

 of day, from March to October. The old doctrine of a different assort- 

 ment of flies for each month in the year is now deservedly exploded, for 

 it is well known to practical anglers, who never read a book on the sub- 

 ject, and whos€ judgment is not biassed by groundless theories, that the 

 same flies with which they catch most fish in April will generally do them 

 good service throughout the season. Tlie names given to artificial flies 

 are for the most part arbitrary, and afford no guide (with one or two excep- 

 tions) for distinguishing the fly meant. Where the materials for dressing 

 a dozen of flies are so much alike, that when thoy are finished there is so 

 little difference in appearance, that one angler will give them one name 

 and another another, it is absurd to affix to each an individual appellation." 



On the other side it is contended, that the non-imitation writers them- 

 selves admit, as experience compels them to do, that there must be an 

 adaptation of colors in the fiy, and also that certain flies will not be 

 taken at some seasons which are freely taken at others. Nay, that tiiough, 

 when the fish are wantonly playful and hungry, they may rush at almost 

 anything like an insect, when the water is clear, the day bright, and the 

 fish coy, the angler who best imitates the natural fly of the time, and casts 

 it with skill, " stands," to use the words of Mr. Blaine, " proudly con- 

 spicuous among his fellows." 



For my own part (in common with most American anglers), I lean to 

 the non-imitation theory, but would not carry it so far as to reject all the 

 notions of the doctrinaires. The trout in our upland streams are more 

 plentiful, and, clearly, less sophisticated than those with whom our trans- 

 atlantic brethren arc conversant. In a virgin stream (such an one as an 

 artificial fly has never been cast upon, which the American fly-fisher some- 

 times meets with), the trout, if fairly on the feed, will take anything that 



