CHANGE OP FLIES. 123 



that he had previously seen flying. This event hap- 

 pened when I was a novice. Walter Ronaldson was 

 attending me, and we were walking by the side of the 

 Elm-wheel in the Pavilion-water. Walter was some 

 way in advance, when I saw a white butterfly fluttering 

 up and down over the water, and a salmon make a 

 fruitless dart at it. It chanced that I had made some 

 large salmon flies with white wings, in imitation 

 of a pattern that was formerly the fashion for trout 

 fishing, and was called, I know not why, the coach- 

 man. One of these I immediately looped to my line : 

 the fish, no doubt taking it for the butterfly that he saw 

 flitting above him, came at it at once, and I took him. 

 When he was landed, Walter's astonishment was great 

 when he saw the fly, and he made a dozen imitations of 

 it before he laid his head on the pillow. I should not 

 think that under other circumstances such a fly would 

 be alluring. 



When a man toils a long time without success, he is 

 apt to attribute his failure to the using an improper fly ; 

 so he changes his book through, till at last, perhaps, he 

 catches fish. The fly, with which he achieves this, is 

 naturally enough a favourite ever afterwards, and pro- 

 bably without reason : the cause of success might be in 

 the change of air and temperature of the water ; and the 

 same thing would probably have occurred if he had 

 persevered with the same fly with which he began. 

 When the night has been frosty, salmon will not stir 

 till the water has received the genial warmth of the day ; 

 and there are a thousand hidden causes of obstruction 

 which we, who are not fish, know nothing about. 



