FIRST EMPTYING. 15 



in a torn-tit's tail. If you cannot get that, try one from a 

 jackdaw's neck, or a coot's breast, or from a blue-cap ; but 

 to my mind the blue of the tom-tit's tail when wet comes 

 nearest to the blue of the living fly. Body, orange and 

 purple silk twisted, dubbed slightly with down from a water 

 rat, and to complete this dainty morsel you must give him an 

 orange head. Probably no fly is so eagerly taken as that of 

 which this is supposed to be an imitation, and none is more 

 difficult to imitate. 



I said, in the course of the foregoing remarks, that you 

 must fish in places where fish are ; and I will add, when you 

 have found out where they are, be careful not to get too near 

 the river in your efforts to reach them. No amount of 

 writing will teach a novice or a duffer these things, but one 

 may convey valuable hints. For instance, nothing is 

 commoner than to see a young hand wading about the very 

 places he ought to be fishing, and in which, until he came 

 into the river, the fish were lying. In the spring of the 

 year, in a moderately full water, trout lie just outside the 

 streams, and on the little flats near where a big stream 

 sweeps by. Before you go into the river, fish these places 

 very carefully, and from a distance, letting your cast of flies 

 come round to the very verge of the river. Then, if you fail 

 to stir any fish in such a place, wade in a short distance 

 only, and fish a little further out. Finally, and this more 

 particularly as the season advances, fish the rough water, 

 and fish every inch of the tail of the stream. There is 

 nothing to be gained by fishing up stream in a rough 

 northern river if there is a moderately full water running. 



FLY DRESSING. 



Anglers who have not had considerable practice at 

 dressing flies will find it much more satisfactory in the long 

 run to buy them, though it is a great advantage to all trout 



