SALMON AND SEA-TROUT. 223 



before. Buying a large stock of them is a serious 

 matter, for their number is vast. I should advise 

 the novice to be content with a small one at first, 

 and to depend on a few patterns of proved merit. 

 Jock Scott, Thunderand Lightning, Durham Ranger, 

 Wilkinson, Silver Doctor, Dunkeld, Greenwell, and 

 one or two sober-coloured flies, including the March 

 brown such a list ought to do well enough for any 

 river. Except on a few rivers in spring, flies of 

 2in. or more are seldom needed, and the range of 

 size I depend on is from about fin. (from bend to 

 loop) to about i fin. 



I generally carry a few of the smaller flies 

 dressed on double hooks, as they swim deeper 

 owing to the extra weight, and also, I fancy, hook 

 better. But on the second point I am not quite 

 sure. Nor am I sure whether flies with a metal 

 eye are, as some say, less effective than those with 

 a. loop of twisted gut. I prefer the last, but the 

 preference is perhaps based on instinct rather than 

 reason. A good big fly-book, or a tin box or two 

 with spring catches, will hold the flies. A gaff 

 with a sling ,vas mentioned as an accessory for 

 pike fishing. On some rivers the gaff is not 

 allowed, and there one must either net or "tail" 

 one's fish ; that is to say, grasp him when played 

 out in the narrow part just behind the tail and so 



