210 CHOICE OF FLY. 



body, to which I can get no two anglers to 

 put the same name, that appeal to me, and 

 my favourite runs or pools, better than any 

 other patterns. * It is a kind of Blue Upright 

 I suppose.' * It certainly is not a Blue 

 Upright.' ' It looks a likely fly any way.' 

 These are the varying verdicts of its species,, 

 or variety, given by different friends on the 

 meadows. Of late years I have had it made 

 to pattern, from sheer inability to define it. 



As May progresses towards the fifteenth of 

 the month, the Black gnat, in various shapes 

 and sizes, must be in the angler's fly box. 

 The very prettiest form of dry fly fishing is 

 generally enjoyed with this neat little lure. 

 To hook and land a pound-and-a-halfer on a 

 nought-nought black gnat, from a well whipped 

 Club water, brings the same satisfaction as a 

 stroke at billiards, which, under no circum- 

 stances, would be regarded as a fluke even by 

 the bitterest opponent. How some of these 

 tiny hooks manage to hold a trout, whose maw 

 could compass a tangerine orange, is a marveL 

 Yet they do, most effectively, burying them- 

 selves in some tough piece of sinewy or bony 

 substance often far down the fish's gullet. 



Another much vaunted fly one which is 

 barred on certain waters as being hardly a fair 

 one to use, is the Alexandra. On its silver 

 shanked hook surrounded with peacock's harl 

 it must gain its efficacy from being mistaken 

 for a minnow as it is drawn through the water. 

 One proof of this exists in the fact that large 



