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FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 Some idea may be gained of the perplexity in which one would be in- 

 volved who determined to angle in strict conformity with the lesson 

 Dr Ward derived from his experiment, by studying a paper contributed 

 by Mr Sheringham to the same number of the "Field," in which he states 

 the conclusions to which he has been led by taking part in these experi- 

 ments. His paper is headed " Some Practical Considerations," a title 

 wherein possibly lurks a vein of sly humour. However, my readers shall 

 judge for themselves from the following paragraphs: 



'*Dr Ward has shown very clearly how much the appearance of a 

 fly under water depends on its position with relation to both the fish 

 and the sun, or, at any rate, the point in the sky where the sun should be 

 visible. Even on a grey day the light rays from that point are, I presume, 

 the strongest. If the fly is between the sun and the fish during the 

 whole of its course, I am satisfied from what I have seen that the 

 wing is of little or no importance so far as lustre and colour go; it 

 can be no more than a shape to the fish. The part of the fly which 

 in that position has definite value is the hackle, with the body, if it 

 is of translucent material, since it admits the light through it and is 

 full of iridescence.* A heavy, opaque wing, so far from being useful, 

 might prove a disadvantage, since it would prevent some light reach- 

 ing the hackle. The moral seems to be — ^for a fly fished between the 

 sun and the salmon, no wing at all, or very little, but plenty of clear 

 hackle and a translucent body. 



" But supposing one were covering the fish from the other bank, 



there would be a material difference in the conditions, and the fish, 



being between the sun and the fiy, would be able to see every 



detail of a mixed wing, the colour of head and butt, the nature of 



body and ribbing, and so on, and with this in mind I should assume 



that now the intricate blend of metal, silk and feather was more 



likely to catch a fish than a fly of simple construction, which would 



be less noticeable and less attractive. So here I read another moral 



— ^for a fly fished beyond a salmon when the sun is behind the angler, 



a pattern which is striking by its blend of colour and arrangement, 



rather than one which depends on translucency." 



It strikes me, as an old salmon-fisher, that any angler who decided 



upon carrying these practical considerations into effect would spend half his 



time in changing the fly with every change of his own position. If salmon 



'Iridescence arises from reflected, not transmitted, colour-rays. 



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