VARIETY RECOMMENDED 175 



say ; probably they resemble various insects, larvae of beetles, 

 or flies, spiders, etc., to some extent, and hence their favour 

 with the fishes. These flies will kill more or less throughout 

 the season. The angler who cannot kill fish with the list I 

 have furnished will, I fear, find angling unprofitable. Any 

 good angler would kill with half of them. I doubt if I use 

 more than a score of flies in the season. The flies most in 

 favour with me, and which are by far the best of all for the 

 angler to place his hopes upon, are the duns and their changes 

 the spinners. I do not think there is any stream where f ron one 

 end of the season to the other some of these delicate little 

 flies will not be found to kill, therefore the angler should always 

 be provided with a good stock and variety of them. There is a 

 great number of them, of various shades and sizes, but the 

 angler will greatly simplify matters if he will act according 

 to the following advice : 



Have two sizes of each fly let the largest be dressed on a 

 No. 10 hook, and the smallest on a No. 12 or smaller if required. 

 Of blue duns he should have four shades very dark for the 

 iron-blue ; a shade lighter for the later swarms of that fly ; 

 next, the ordinary blue dun, and lastly, a light pale blue dun, 

 almost silvery. The three darkest of these shades should be 

 ribbed with fine yellow glovers' silk ; the light one need not be4 

 The wings and hackles should keep pace with the bodies in 

 shade. Of yellow duns the angler should have one size only 

 of the large yellow dun previously mentioned ; the common 

 yellow dun, one size ; a lighter buff-coloured, two sizes ; a 

 lighter still of almost a grey silk, two sizes ; and one with an 

 apple-green body. If he chooses further to vary these shades 

 by running one into the other or by even medium tints of 

 olive, yellow, and green, so much the better. The olives vary 

 a good deal, and most of these have darkish wings and yellowish 

 legs. One or two of these flies have very clear wings, particu- 

 larly the lighter ones, and should be dressed buzz. Of spinners 

 the angler should have, of the red, two sizes ; the brown, two 

 sizes ; a lighter brown, two sizes. As I have already said, next 

 to these are the Phryganidas, a small selection of which must 

 not be neglected. 



With these flies in his book he need not fear to venture on 

 almost any stream ; of course there are times when other 

 flies, which are prime favourites when they come on, will 

 kill better. I shall presently give a short list of flies, as they 

 are requisite to a tolerably complete equipment. 



