viii A BOOK ON ANGLING 



" What fly's that ye have on ? " asked the tyrant. " I never 

 seen the like o' that used here." 



" Oh, well ! " I replied with all the nonchalance I could 

 assume, " it is a fancy of my own I want to try." 



" I don't think it's the proper fly at all for this water," 

 rejoined the other. " Have ye not got a Wulkinson in your 

 box ? " 



It required all my stock of resolution to persist ; but I did. 

 We crossed the river, and set to work under the hanging wood 

 on the west side of the famous Haly Wiel. Not a fin stirred 

 till after two o'clock ; but we were pretty busy that afternoon. 

 The new fly accounted for seven fish from eight rises 22 lb., 

 22 lb., 20 lb., 18 lb., 16 lb., 16 lb., and 8 lb. I have used it on 

 many other rivers since that day, and found it just as good as 

 any other pattern and no better ! In justice, however, to the 

 memory of Francis and to those who hold a contrary opinion 

 to mine on the subject of salmon flies, I must tell what hap- 

 pened a few days later in the same water. On this occasion the 

 Haly Wiel fell to the lot of a brother angler ; my beat being 

 the far less productive one immediately above, named Crom- 

 wiel. Here I killed two fish in the forenoon, 26 lb. and 16 lb., 

 and then went down to eat a sandwich with my friend below. 

 Cromwiel having done so handsomely, I made sure that he 

 must have had much pulling in the Haly Wiel. To my surprise 

 he had not moved a fish. I asked what fly he had been using. 

 He showed me a small Silver Grey. " Wrong metal," said I, 

 " try that one " ; and I gave him one of my golden fancy of 

 the same size. I then started back for Cromwiel ; but had not 

 gone a couple of hundred yards when I heard a view-halloo, 

 and, looking back, saw my friend fast in a fish. He landed it 

 and one other that afternoon, while I moved nothing more in 

 Cromwiel. Certainly the change of my friend's fly seemed to 

 indicate the superior attraction of crimson and gold over grey 

 and silver on that particular afternoon ; and, although the 

 incident leaves me cold, it did much to establish the reputation 

 of my fly, which was christened the " Sir Herbert " after its 

 creator.* 



* Although, alas ! Francis had made his last cast long before the genesis of 

 this fly, I have ventured to give its likeness in Plate XVI, Fig. 2. It is dressed 

 thus : Tag and body all in one, gold tinsel ribbed with gold twist, orange hackle 

 over ; tail, a topping. Three turns of scarlet mohair, picked out, next the 

 wing, crimson hackle at shoulder. Wing two slips of dark turkey with white 

 tips over two tippet feathers ; blue chatterer cheeks or kingfisher, red macaw 

 horns, black chenille head. 



