FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 297 



I know more than one trout stream where the May fly has dis- 

 appeared within the last ten years, and have heard of sundry 

 others. Of course this implies a diminution of the average 

 weight of the fish in such streams, supposing their number the 

 same. A fortnight's steady feeding on the grey and green 

 drake used formerly to produce a marked improvement in the 

 weight of the trout as well as in the colour of their flesh, so that 

 those taken in the latter half of June with the black gnat or 

 red-spinner were altogether a 'superior article.' Now, the 

 larger fish are not at their best till the end of July or beginning 

 of August, and the number of those which never get into con- 

 dition during the fishing season, but remain, like the Ancient 

 Mariner, 'long, and lank, and brown,' is steadily increasing, 

 except in a few favoured reaches where there is a good depth 

 of water with a strong sedgy border. I may remark by the way 

 that the Phryganea appear to suffer less from excessive weed- 

 cutting than the Ephemera ; doubtless because their larvae crawl 

 about more in open spaces, and, from the protection afforded 

 by their ' cases,' are better able to extricate themselves when 

 hauled ashore in a mass of weed. The orl flies and caperers, 

 for instance, keep their ground better than the more delicate 

 flies of the Caddis family. 



Reverting now to what I have called the twofold problem 

 of breeding and feeding an increased stock of trout to meet the 

 increased demand, I may state without hesitation that the 

 difficulty in breeding fish in sufficient numbers will be far more 

 easily overcome than that of feeding them up to a respectable 

 size and condition. No doubt the shrinking of our brooks 

 already alluded to has damaged many of the best spawning 

 grounds, and exposed others in an increasing degree to the 

 depredations of that worst class of poachers who destroy the 

 fish on the redds. But, on the other hand, artificial breeding 

 has for some years past been better understood and more ex- 

 tensively practised in the United Kingdom ; and though we 

 are still far behind the United States and probably behind 

 Canada in this department of pisciculture, yet I think the 



