COARSE FISH AND THE FLY. 181 



sionally to be found at the top in hot weather, and 

 then they will generally take a fly. The methods 

 employed for chub and flies used for dace will 

 -answer with both fish. I have now and again 

 caught them on biggish chub flies, and once I 

 caught two large roach on a salmon fly about iin.? 

 long. On the whole, I have done more good with 

 wet flies than dry, and I have found both rudd and 

 roach take them even more slowly than chub. 

 Roach in particular will often follow a black gnat 

 or coachman for many yards, taking it at the last 

 :moment. One of the best flies for rudd is the 

 Francis chub fly, dressed on a No. i or 2 hook. 

 The gut should be as fine as possible for both, 

 but the rudd is the stronger fish, and is often 

 caught in places where gossamer tackle means cer- 

 tain disaster. Therefore I do not often fish for it 

 with anything finer than 2x. 



Lastly, it is perhaps worth mentioning that perch 

 -are now and then to be caught with a gaudy fly. 

 I once had quite a nice little basket of them when 

 fishing below a Thames weir with a small salmon 

 fly in hopes of a trout, and the capture of an odd 

 one when one is fishing in this manner is a common 

 event. In a river it is scarcely worth while to fish 

 with a fly definitely for perch, but there are shallow 

 lakes where very good fun may now and then be 



