NOTES ON THE MONTHS FOIl FLY-FISHING. 213 



personally used this lure for more than forty years, and 

 can fully testify to its killing powers when properly pre- 

 sented. By its use the fly-fisher is enabled to pursue his 

 sport at any time of the day (or night) when the fish are 

 not rising, and all ordinary means fail. This bait was 

 originated by a famous Dove angler some half-century or 

 so ago. This worthy, however, assiduously kept the 

 thing private, and it was finally divulged in a purely 

 accidental manner. Mr. Professor having, during a fly- 

 fishing match, through a laxity of vigilance, left a type 

 of the unknown mystic lure upon a twig on the opposite 

 bank, his rival, upon whom the action had not been 

 lost, being in the vicinity, took the opportunity of solv- 

 ing a problem that had perplexed him and other fisher- 

 men for several seasons, as to the nature of an artificial 

 capable of killing almost unfailingly, and that, too, when 

 all ordinary artificials were all but useless. The dis- 

 coverer referred to, was the writer, from whom the 

 author of the " Fly-fisher's Entomology," and the gen- 

 eral public, obtained the secret of the mid-water fly. As 

 Mr. Konalds points out, the artificial in question is a 

 copy of the Arctia Caga, or Tiger Moth (commonly 

 known as the Woolly Bear). In Scotch and Irish waters 

 it is equally killing when dressed somewhat larger, as it 

 is in the well-whipped streams of England. To both the 

 salmon and trout fisher it forms a sort of auxiliary in 

 reserve, convenient in otherwise trying circumstances. 



AUGUST. 



During this month the most favorable days for fly- 

 fishing are when the weather fs cloudy, and the water's 

 surface is slightly ruffled by a breeze of wind. As the 

 weather usually prevailing is similar to that of the month 

 preceding, the instructions there given apply equally to 

 the present month. Upon clear sunny days the fish will 

 be found under the shade of the bushes, on the sides of 



