THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 271 



line, and making a fly, and now desire an account of the flies 

 themselves. 



Piscator, Why, sir, I am ready to give it you, and shall have 

 the whole afternoon to do it in. if nobody come in to interrupt 

 us ; for you must know, (besides the unfitness of the day,) that 

 the afternoons, so early in March, signify very little to angling 

 with a fly, though with a Minnow, or a worm, something might, 

 I confess, be done. 



To begin, then, where I left off : My father Walton tells us 

 but of twelve artificial flies to angle with at the top, and gives 

 their names ; of which some are common with us here ; and I 

 think I guess at most of them by his description, and I believe 

 they all breed and are taken in our rivers, though we do not 

 make them either of the same dubbing or fashion. And it may 

 be in the rivers about London, which I presume he has most 

 frequented, and where it is likely he has done most execution, 

 there is not much notice taken of many more: but we are 

 acquainted with several others here, though perhaps I may 

 reckon some of his by other names too ; but if I do, I shall 

 make you amends by an addition to his catalogue. And although 

 the forenamed great master in the art of angling for so in truth 

 he is tells you that no man should, in honesty, catch a Trout 

 till the middle of March, yet I hope he will give a man leave 

 sooner to take a Grayling, which, as I told you, is in the dead 

 months in his best season : and do assure you (which I remember 

 by a very remarkable token) I did once take, upon the sixth day 

 of December, one, and only one, of the biggest Graylings, and 

 the best in season, that ever I yet saw or tasted ; and do usually 

 take Trouts too, and with a fly, not only before the middle of 

 this month, but almost every year in February, unless it be a 

 very ill spring indeed ; and have sometimes in January, so 

 early as New-year's tide, and in frost and snow, taken Grayling 

 in a warm sunshine day for an hour or two about noon ; and to 

 fish for him with a grub, it is then the best time of all. 



I shall therefore begin my fly-fishing with that month, (though, 

 I confess, very few begin so soon, and that such as are so fond 

 of the sport as to embrace all opportunities can rarely in that 

 month find a day fit for their purpose,) and tell you, that, upon 

 my knowledge, these flies, in a warm sun, for an hour or two, 

 in the day, are certainly taken. 



JANUARY. 



1. A red brown, with wings of the male of a mallard, almost 

 white ; the dubbing of the tail of a black long-coated cur, such 

 as they commonly make muffs of; for the hair on the tail of 

 such a dog dyes, and turns to a red brown, but the hair of a 



