8o FLIES, FLY-DRESSING, ETC. 



those we were using ; and they killed quite as well, 

 and sometimes better, two months before the 

 natural fly came on the water, or two months after 

 it was gone. We think it just possible that when 

 a large fly, such as the green drake, remains a 

 long time on the water, trout may recognise it, 

 and when the waters are dark coloured and there 

 is a strong breeze of wind, take an imitation of it 

 more readily than any other. But in our own 

 experience we have never found this to be the 

 case ; and though we have frequently tried this 

 fly so celebrated on English streams we have 

 never found it nearly so deadly as our usual flies, 

 even when the water was coloured ; and in clear 

 water it failed entirely, as all large flies will, for 

 the obvious reason that their size enables the trout 

 to detect their artificial character. Furthermore, 

 we have killed more trout with this imitation in 

 the month of May, before the real insects had 

 made their appearance, than in June, when the 

 water was swarming with them, which we ascribe 

 to the circumstance that trout will take a larger 

 fly in May than in June. 



This opinion would not have been maintained 

 so long, but that there is at first sight a degree of 

 plausibility about it, and that it does not to any 

 great extent interfere with the successful practice 

 of fly-fishing. What is meant for an imitation of 

 a particular fly may! occasionally do good service; 

 not because the trout see any resemblance between 



