A good Imitation essential. 23 



presented to them ; but not, indeed, if we " draw 

 our flies up and across stream in a way in which 

 no natural insect is ever seen ; " for then, undoubt- 

 edly, it would not only be impossible for the fish 

 to "discriminate between different species, but it 

 would be difficult for it even to identify the flies 

 as flies." Mr Pennell says that this is the point 

 in which the entomological theory entirely breaks 

 down. No doubt it is ; but this so-called entomo- 

 logical theory is not the theory of any practical 

 angler with whom I am acquainted, although it 

 may be an antiquated method of alarming fish by 

 report. No one now with the slightest pretensions 

 to the name of angler would in any circumstances 

 ever dream of " drawing his flies up and across 

 stream," as Mr Pennell himself advocates, in the 

 hope of concealing the defects of his imitation by 

 an unnatural mode of presenting it. 



I maintain that where the imitation is good, the 

 trout will take it, and that, as a general rule, the 

 more closely any artificial fly resembles, both in 

 form and colour, its natural prototype, the better 

 will it kill; in other words, that trout can, and 

 do, distinguish "minutiae of form and imitation." 

 During night-fishing in June, I use six flies of 

 different colours or shades of colour ; and I have 

 times innumerable found that nearly the whole of 

 my trout, amounting from 10 to 20 Ib. and fre- 



