166 TROUT FISHING 



The stretcher I have employed with most success 

 is tied on a No. 7 Adlington ; body of hare's flax, 

 that has been shaved off, and has a good red tinge 

 in it, ribbed with gold twist : the fly should be 

 made short, but bushy and thick ; the shortness of 

 the body allows plenty of room on the hook for the 

 maggot, and will be found a considerable advan- 

 tage. The hackle should either match precisely 

 the colour of the hare's flax, or it may be a rusty- 

 recl hackle. Another good fly is made with pea- 

 cock's feather for body, or red cow's hair, in 

 either case ribbed with gold twist, short in the 

 body, and with a black-red hackle, of which there 

 should be abundance on the hook. The peacock's 

 feather I seldom use, because it so soon wears out, 

 but it is an attractive fly. The fly I chiefly em- 

 ploy is the hare's flax. For the bob fly, any 

 medium-sized fly may be used something either 

 of the blues or browns, as the fisherman may 

 fancy. No more need be said about the rod than 

 that we can use our ordinary fly rod suitable to 

 the size and description of stream. The particular 

 method of using the maggot to its greatest advan- 

 tage, differs in no great degree from the method 

 I recommend for the artificial fly in bright weather 

 on rapid small streams; and should we be induced 

 to use it on the large streams, we must still keep 

 in our mind the characters of small rapid streams, 

 and pick out the suitable places resembling those 

 011 the smaller streams, calling on each particular 

 fish, and not wasting our time in indiscriminate 

 attempts. From what is said, it will be evident 



