THE FLY QUESTION 103 



one is not likely to have to put the matter to the 

 proof it is amusing sometimes to dally with the 

 idea. Moreover, there are anglers who have fished 

 a season through with a single pattern, or with but 

 one or two changes. Lord Grey in his book on 

 fly fishing has set down a short and simple list of 

 flies which comes very near the single-fly ideal. 

 For dry-fly work he expressed his content with 

 four patterns (besides Mayfly and sedge), to wit, 

 medium olive, iron blue, red quill, and plain black 

 hackle. For wet-fly fishing his selection was March 

 brown, Greenwell's Glory, the Pennell No. 1, red 

 quill, and black spider. W. C. Stewart evidently 

 favoured a short and simple list for his own use, 

 and he advocated but six patterns. 



That veteran angler and writer, " Red Quill," 

 once described in the Field the result of a season's 

 dry-fly fishing in which he used but a single pattern, 

 the fly which gives him his pen-name. And there 

 are a certain number of single-fly men about. A 

 friend of mine had for some years one unvarying 

 reply to the question " What did you get them on ? " 

 It was " A Wickham." He may sometimes have 

 used some other pattern, but I never saw anything 

 else on his cast. Another friend of mine in answer 

 to the same question might be depended on to reply, 

 " A red tag." And a few years ago on a wet-fly 

 stream in the spring I met an angler who told me 



