Mr PenneWs Experience. 2 5 



fly if properly imitated in size, shape, and colour. 

 So with the March brown ; in April the success of 

 the angler will be measured almost entirely by the 

 extent to which he avails himself of a good imita- 

 tion of the natural fly. 



In combating the " legitimate deduction " of the 

 " formalist," that the imitation of the fly on the 

 water at any given time is that which the fish will 

 take best, Mr Pennell says, " The experience of 

 every fly-fisher teaches him that when a particu- 

 lar natural fly is on the water in abundance, trout 

 will commonly take better an artificial fly imita- 

 tive of any other species." It is now nearly forty 

 years since " Ephemera " x held this doctrine up to 

 scorn, and apologetically assured his English readers 

 that " some Scotch writers were the first promul- 

 gators of it, and that they had carried it to ridic- 

 ulous extravagance." But however excusable it 

 might be in a "Scotch writer" so long ago, com- 

 ing from an English authority on angling of to- 

 day, and of " twenty years' experience " to boot, is it 

 not enough to take away one's breath, and tempt 

 another " Scotch writer " to ask where Mr Pennell 

 obtained his experience? At all events it has 

 not been my experience, and I have fished seven 

 months in the year during a period double that 

 over which the researches of Mr Pennell have ex- 

 1 Handbook on Angling, p. 84. 



