424 SALMON AND TROUT 



rooted red hackle, ribbed palmer-fashion with gold twist. But 

 any first rate lake-fly ought to kill in the Thames. 



I once talked over this question with a zealous brother- 

 angler during an afternoon chat. On my telling him that I 

 thought a good dark-winged Professor would do the trick, 

 my practical friend at once said, ' Let me see you tie one.' 

 I remember perfectly the fly I turned out then and there on a 

 grilse hook. The wings and tail were brown drake, legs a 

 dark-red hackle, body orange silk ribbed with gold twist, just 

 such a fly as I would have liked to throw on a Scotch loch 

 where the trout run heavy. 



'Now,' said my friend still 'nothing if not practical' 'let 

 us walk down to Mar-low Pool and try it.' 



We found the -water very low, so that after just stepping on 

 a punt to cross one narrow channel I found myself commanding 

 the -tail of the pool from a firm step of dry gravel. At my 

 third throw I hooked a good fish, who lost no time in tiring 

 himself by boring up stream. I had not even brought a landing- 

 net, tut Sir H. Heinrich himself a very successful Thames 

 angler who was barbel-fishing under the central weir-stream, 

 dropped down and landed my fish for me. It weighed about 

 5^ Ibs., and as perfectly shaped a trout as I ever extracted even 

 from the Thames. I have since found other lake-flies killing ; 

 notably, one of my special favourites, tied with jackdaw wing, 

 black hackle and claret body. Still, I rather prefer the cast of 

 flies first named, both the alder and the red palmer being 

 deadly lures for large chub, of which I seldom fail to secure a 

 fair number near the haunts of the nobler fish. 



There is one other fly the ' White Moth ' which I ought 

 perhaps to name in connection with Thames trout. I hardly 

 ever fished the river late, but on one occasion I found myself 

 lingering after dusk, at the close of a glorious July day, in hopes 

 of adding a third fish to two already in the well. Fish of all 

 kinds had been a-stir, drawn to the surface of the Bray water 

 by an extraordinary insect cloud formed by millions of the 

 ' Yellow Sally,' and as the light waned, the whim seized me to 



