208 CHOICE OF FLY. 



my favourites February Red; Blue Upright 

 (male and female), Half Stone, Hare's Flax, 

 Middle Blue, Silver Twist, and of course March 

 Brown, without which no beginner thinks he 

 is complete.' 



4 I think the sizes of the patterns should be 

 according to the weather and water : on a coarse 

 windy day with heavy water a large pattern ; 

 for a fine day with low and clear water, a 

 small pattern. This ought to be quite enough 

 for a beginner to start with. One can only 

 give the flies which you found to be * good 

 medicine ' when you were a tyro.' 



In wet fly fishing it is important to choose 

 a hackle fly which does not resolve itself into 

 the shape of a wet camel's hair paint brush 

 unless you find that it ' takes ' in that form. 

 The hackle of a fly is of course intended to 

 imitate the legs of the real insect, especially 

 those of a drowned one. It is advisable there- 

 fore to look at your fly as it lies in the water 

 and see the kind of resemblance it bears to 

 what it is posing as a counterpart. You will 

 not trouble to do this if it is attracting fish. 

 So long as the fly is successful, pay no atten- 

 tion to its shape not even if part of the 

 dressing has come away. As to a winged 

 sedge fly, or an alder, it is frequently most 

 killing when half the wing is hanging off or 

 half the hackle so untwisted that it presents 

 the appearance of two flies. Even a badly 

 rusted iron is no drawback, provided the point 

 and barb are effective. 



