46 ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT FISHERIES 



tained from the Carlisle Angling Association, 

 but they have lost all their water except in the 

 neighbourhood of Carlisle, where trout-fishing is 

 only poor, though it is improving. The season 

 opens on March 1st, and, with favourable con- 

 ditions of weather and water, good baskets are 

 often got with the fly in this month, but trout 

 are not really in good condition till well into April. 

 The most killing early fly is the dark bloa, made 

 from the inside feather of a waterhen's wing, with 

 purple body, and, with the body changed to yellow, 

 this fly is very good all through the spring. The 

 March brown is seldom used except in a brown 

 water, the ordinary spider orange partridge being 

 found much more killing. In April the feather 

 from the inside of a woodcock's wing with yellow 

 body kills well, and again on summer evenings. 

 In fact, though Greenwell's glory, Wickham's 

 fancy, and other well-known flies are fished/ by 

 some and do well, a good angler could command 

 good sport throughout the season with the two 

 feathers just mentioned, merely varying the size 

 of hook and colour of body. 



When the weather is bright, from the middle 

 of April to middle of May, creeper-fishing is 

 by far the most deadly. This caddis of the 

 stone-fly can be got easily in many parts of the 

 Eden, is baited on two small hooks, with a small 

 shot 10 inches from the bait, is fished up stream 

 in the rough water, and it is not difficult for a 

 novice to learn the art. Following on the creeper 

 comes the stone-fly, locally called the May-fly, 

 which is also a deadly bait. It has one advan- 

 tage over the creeper, that it is good in thin runs 

 as well as streams ; in fact in the same water as 



