86 FLY-FISHING FOR PIKE. 



and the bait scarce, it would be ineffective. I 

 therefore give it by no means the prominence it 

 would otherwise deserve. The original inventor, if 

 I may so style it, of the system, was I think Lord 

 Gage, who has practised it successfully for upwards 

 of thirty years in the large pieces of artificial water 

 in his park at Firle, near Lewes, out of which 

 water I have myself taken with the fly fish of 

 fifteen pounds weight. Perhaps the most success- 

 ful fisher in this line is Mr Hayes of Hertingford- 

 bury, near Hatfield, who kills from eighty to one 

 hundred fish a year. His flies, if flies they can 

 be called, are composed almost exclusively of the 

 gray feathers taken from beneath the mallard's 

 wing. A thin silver twist is wound round the body 

 to attract the attention of the fish, and the head 

 is indifferently black, red, or blue. In addition to 

 the large salmon-hook generally employed, a 

 smaller one is tied under the feathers on the 

 same plane, but on the opposite side, and is 

 doubtless very effective. So far from dressing the 

 fly in a fashion to make it swim truly, a great 

 desideratum in salmon-flies, Mr Hayes makes a 

 slight bend in the tail to cause a " wobble " when it 

 is drawn through the water, so as to resemble as 

 nearly as possible the action of a newly-born 

 aquatic bird. The rod required for this sport is 



