FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 



shoulders and dark markings on the wings; in short, that a red 

 mayfly, when photographed, should appear exactly like a grey one. 

 At last, however, a satisfactory result was obtained. 



*' On June 3, after the mayfly had been on about a fortnight, I went 

 to fish the Gade at Cassiobury. ... I found the mayfly abundant, 

 and the trout, which are exceedingly numerous,* taking them freely. 

 I had no desire that the keeper should suspect me at once of being a 

 lunatic, so I mounted a fly of the ordinary pattern, with which I landed 

 a brace of trout. Then I broached the subject of the dangerous flies, 

 and told my guide that I wished to try some experiments. There was 

 a good, light -coloured trout lying above the bridge in the park in a 

 convenient position. He was near the surface, though I did not see 

 him actually take the natural fly. With considerable trepidation 

 I attached a scarlet mayfly to my cast and offered it to the fish. The 

 sun was shining brightly, and the lure made a hideous display on 

 the water, like a floating fuchsia blossom, and I confess I was sur- 

 prised when the trout, instead of darting away at its approach, rose, 

 quietly sucked it in, and was landed. 



" So much for a first experiment; but I was not quite satisfied, 

 because I had not observed this trout taking the natural mayfiy; 

 so I went down to a bend in the river where three trout were rising. 

 The first of these took the red mayfly greedily and weighed IJ lb. 

 I changed to a bright blue mayfly, to which the second trout suc- 

 cumbed, and so did the third, each of them weighing IJ lb. Several 

 others followed on the blue, as well as a brace of chub, till, at a place 

 peculiarly favourable for watching the movements of fish, I mounted 

 the red again. It was the hottest time of day, and at first I thought the 

 trout had found me out. One fish came up two or three times, and 

 turned from the red fly; I took it off and tried him with a grey one, 

 which he took. This certainly looked as if the trout perceived a 

 difference between cherry colour and ash colour; but a little later 

 almost the converse happened. A trout came up, inspected and 

 refused the grey fly, and afterwards took a blue one. The prettiest 

 fish in the bag, a lovely two-pounder, fell to the blue fly after swallow- 

 • ing several of the natural. 



" To make a long story as short as is consistent with precision, I 



*I am informed that this is no longer the case, and that there is woful diminution in the stock of trout owing to 

 pike having been allowed to increase and the channel to silt up with mud. 



56 



