SUN-FLIES. 15 



methods of mastering them will cost many observations, careful record, 

 and much thought, but the measure of success already known to follow 

 such investigation lifts the Angler far above any blind or groping reliance 

 on the best traditions of the past. Is it not notorious that in several of 

 our rivers the fish have been educated to persistently snub old patterns 

 in favour of new ? And is it not indeed an achievement to present to the 

 fish a fly that he then and there prefers to your rival's to have yourself 

 made the attraction so strong, as to establish, more or less permanently, 

 a decided taste in the fish, so that he refuses other flies, to wait for 

 yours ! 



In mentioning, just now, the names of a few standard patterns, I 

 might have added, with regard to the results brought about by the special 

 use of Sun-flies, that I have evidence, nay, the strongest proof, of what 

 may be accomplished from systeniatised knowledge. 



What, in the name of sport, would our forefathers think Salmon 

 angling had come to, could we tell them of the great results that have 

 been achieved altogether without periods of much trouble, while fishing 

 in the brightest sunshine ! They first taught us, it is true, to use bright 

 flies in bright weather and so on ; but they themselves never failed to 

 reel up in the daytime under a cloudless canopy of blue, nor ever 

 dreamed of sport with such a pattern as the " Variegated Sun-fly," 

 which, by the way, has more than filled the promise of its youth. 



It is happy for us latter-day Anglers that the " specials " came into 

 existence, that they still live, and that they afford so many proofs of their 

 own masterful vitality in those very times when all other flies fail. Our 

 knowledge in the matter of these, at any rate, is " methodical, organised, 

 precise, and always ready to hand " ; and I put forward my own portion 

 of the work with great confidence. 



