162 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



seems to assist them, as very few flies come on the water im- 

 mediately after the May fly. 



The green drake is, as I have said, an imperfect insect, the 

 female becoming the grey drake and the male fly the black, 

 or, as it is sometimes called, the death drake, this term being 

 used from a foolish belief that it kills the female or grey drake. 

 Many anglers hold it to be next to useless to attempt to use 

 the artificial fly when the May fly is well on ; but this belief is 

 very erroneous, and is more often used to excuse themselves 

 for fishing with a blow-line or the live May fly than because 

 it is really the fact. The green drake is no doubt a very 

 difficult fly to imitate well, but I have seen many good baskets 

 of trout made with the imitation, even in the finest and 

 warmest weather. The best times to use the imitation are of 

 course before the trout are thoroughly acquainted with it, 

 and daily before the regular rise is fully established and the 

 fish are settled down into feeding, and after the rise slackens 

 towards evening, when the imitation of the grey drake may 

 be used with some success ; and if the angler is industrious 

 and up to his work, he may manage at these times to pick up 

 several brace of good fish. In the middle of the day if it does 

 not answer, the angler can try some other fly, when it will 

 often happen that from caprice or for a change, the trout will 

 often take an imitation of some other fly though they may 

 refuse your imitation green drake. At such times I have often 

 killed several brace of fine fish with the alder, sedge fly, or 

 some of the duns or spinners which may chance to be on the 

 water, and that, too, even when the May fly is on at the 

 thickest of the rise. * The angler should bear in mind that while 

 fish are rising there is always hope for him, and it by no 

 means follows that because one fish refuses another will, or 

 because half a dozen or even a score of fish refuse that all will, 

 or because they are feeding on the May fly like an alderman 

 on turtle, that they will refuse a sedge or alder any more than 

 the said alderman will pepper or punch. Sitting on the bank 

 and watching the fish rise is not the way to catch them, and 

 perseverance even in the teeth of great apparent difficulties 

 often rewards the angler with fish which nothing else would 

 have given him. 



When the May fly is only moderately on, the angler may 



* The heaviest trout I ever killed on dry fly was in the Test at Broadlands. 

 It weighed exactly 6 Ib. The May fly was on thick, but I was fishing with a 

 sedge. ED. 



