110 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



winds, the south wind is said to be the best. One observes, 

 that 



when the wind is south, 



It blows your bait into a fish's mouth. 



Next to that, the west wind is believed to be the best : and 

 having told you that the east wind is the worst, I need not tell 

 which wind is the best in the third degree : and yet (as Solomon 

 observes,) that " he that considers the wind shall never sow : " 

 so he that busies his head too much about them, if the weather 

 be not made extreme cold by an east wind, shall be a little 

 superstitious : for as it is observed by some, that " there is no 

 good horse of a bad colour ;" so I have observed, that if it be a 

 cloudy day, and not extreme cold, let the wind sit in what 

 corner it will, and do its worst, I heed it not. And yet take 

 this for a rule, that I would willingly fish, standing on the lee- 

 shore ; and you are to take notice, that the fish lies or swims 

 nearer the bottom, and in deeper water, in winter than in 

 summer ; and also nearer the bottom in a cold day, and then 

 gets nearest the lee-side of the water. 



But I promised to tell you more of the fly-fishing for a Trout, 

 which I may have time enough to do, for you see it rains May- 

 butter. First, for a May-fly, you may make his body with 

 greenish-coloured crewel, or willo wish- colour, darkening it in 

 most places with waxed silk, or ribbed with black hair, or some 

 of them ribbed with silver thread ; and such wings, for the colour, 

 as you see the fly to have at that season, nay, at that very day 

 on the water. Or you may make the Oak-fly, with an orange, 

 tawny, and black ground ; and the brown of a mallard's feather 

 for the wings.* And you are to know, that these two are most 

 excellent flies, that is, the May-fly and the Oak-fly. 



And let me again tell you, that you keep as far from the water 

 as you can possibly, whether you fish with a fly or worm, and 

 fish down the stream. And when you fish with a fly, if it be 

 possible, let no part of your line touch the water, f but your fly 

 only ; and be still moving your fly upon the water, or casting it 

 into the water, you yourself being also always moving down the 

 stream. 



* Some dub the Oak-fly with black wool, and Isabella-coloured mohair, 

 and bright brownish bear's hair, warped on with yellow silk, but the head 

 of an ash colour ; others dub it with an oransre, tawny, and black ground ; 

 others with blackish wool and gold twist ; the wings of the brown of a 

 mallard's feather. Rowlker, in his Art of Angling, p. 63, says, " The body 

 may be made of a bittern's feather, and the wings of the feather of a 

 woodcock's wing." 



f-This is impossible, unless you dub with the artificial as with the 

 natural fly, which is never practised. The method of throwing or casting 

 is more particularly treated of, in the notes on chap. v. part ii. 



