FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 279 



swollen waters, in every river, and from the beginning to the 

 end of the trouting season. Surely it is more than a mere co- 

 incidence that the rough caterpillar, or palmer worm, which 

 these lures accurately resemble, should also be astir during full 

 six months of the year, and be continually sent down the stream 

 when a sudden rise of the water washes its margin ? 



To these examples, which I cited in favour of the ' imita- 

 tive ' theory nearly thirty years ago, I will add two or three 

 more drawn from subsequent experience or overlooked at that 

 time. There are certain flies tied in deliberate imitation of 

 female insects carrying at their tails a ball of eggs to be dropped 

 one by one in the water. I will instance two of these the 

 ' Grannom ' or ' Greentail.' and the ' Governor.' The grannom 

 I speak now of the natural fly is a reddish brown insect, 

 not uncommon in the bushy reaches of many southern streams. 

 It flies high, however, and so rarely touches the water that no 

 artificial copy of it is in common use. But when the female 

 fly develops her ova and is about to shed them she hovers close 

 to the surface of the brook, with a green ball behind her, which 

 may in more senses than one be said to wait upon her latter 

 end. For as she drops egg after egg on the water, the eyes of 

 hungry trout are soon attracted to her movements, and in some 

 luckless moment of contact with the water she, with the portion 

 of her rising family not yet launched on the world, disappears 

 down a fish's gullet. 



Now towards the end of April or beginning of May for 

 the breeding season of insects depends greatly on the weather 

 I often use the grannom fly, sometimes with signal success. 

 But I have never done any good with it except during the few 

 days when the female insect with her queer green appendage 

 was actually visible on the water. The 'Governor' again 

 which should rather have been styled the ' Governess ' with 

 its broad band of orange silk at the tail, represents another 

 female fly generally seen on the water towards the end of July, 

 conspicuous by a ripe cluster of orange-coloured eggs. Many 

 practised anglers know nothing of this fly, but I have had the 



