MAY 109 



five clean salmon with the fly, besides very many kelts ; 

 only in one single instance, that of a small kelt, has a fish 

 escaped from double irons after being hooked and held. 

 On the other hand, I must be just to single hooks by 

 mentioning that half of these fish were taken early in 

 the season upon large single hooks. It serves no good 

 purpose to use double hooks when the fly exceeds an 

 inch and a quarter in length. 



As to the other point, the particular pattern of fly, I 

 have mentioned that I mounted a Black Ranger, but 

 that was not from any predilection for that special lure, 

 but because it happened to be the first that came to hand 

 of what seemed an appropriate size. It is no exaggeration 

 to declare that any other fly of similar proportions would 

 have been put on duty with exactly the same degree of 

 confidence. The greater the number of fishing seasons 

 behind me, the less credence can I yield to the supposed 

 preference of salmon for one fly to another. Why, what 

 is the lesson to be learned from this very river Cree? 

 Just this that it is fishers, not fish, that are discerning 

 in dubbing, silk, and feathers. When I first fished this 

 river, thirty years ago, I was warned against displaying 

 anything but ' Cree flies ' sober-hued articles, with bodies 

 of black or brown mohair and wings of gray mallard or 

 dun turkey. At the utmost, a blue- throat hackle was the 

 extreme limit of brilliancy which could be sanctioned. 

 Time went on ; gradually the spirit of innovation crept 

 even into this remote corner of Scotland ; some restless 

 and headstrong reformer, setting at naught the warning 

 of local wiseacres, caught salmon, first with a Poynder, 

 next with a Childers, and forthwith Poynder and 

 Childers were found in every fly-book by the water- side. 



