270 THE SALMON FLY. 



following simple fly which caught the fish the moment it was presented. 

 Tag : Silver twist and yellow silk. Tail ; Toucan : Butt, black herl. 

 Body, dirty-orange Seal's fur ribbed with silver lace. Throat, Grouse 

 hackle. Wings Golden Pheasant tail and a few fibres of fine Peacock's 

 herl mixed together, dressed on a No. 3 hook which was half the size of 

 the exaggeration. (Of this particular nondescript let Annan Anglers take 

 special note.) 



Colonel Kichardson, the gentleman to whom I have just referred, had 

 at the time no belief in my system, but remembering what I had vaguely 

 said some few years previously, tried the experiment out of mere bravado. 

 But he was not satisfied after all, and failure on a subsequent occasion 

 caused him to invite me to meet him. Just at the time I received his 

 letter, I was on the Usk and we discovered that we were fishing within a 

 few miles of each other. Ultimately we determined to try a pool in the 

 Duke of Beaufort's water (Monkswood fishery) running under a well-known 

 beech tree at the head of the " Binding." The river ran dead low and 

 the fish were sailing round and round in the shade. 



Kesuming the usual tactics we put the extravagant fly in sight of the 

 fish. They ceased to roam at once a fact which we easily detected from 

 the wooded bank. In due course the " modification " was presented and 

 the Colonel killed two fish with it, one of 15 Ibs., the other 18 Ibs., in my 

 presence. The " school " itself mustered eight in number. 



I am also permitted to state that Colonel Eichardson has since been 

 practising the method with unusual success, and that at one time he 

 averaged about one fish for every six daily trials. He, however, is of 

 opinion that " the exaggeration practice will never be very popular. First, 

 it requires immense experience in fishing to carry it through, and unless 

 a man is his own fly-tier his chance is very poor. Secondly, and mainly, 

 because the fish are apt to detect the business and it makes them more 

 shy than ever." 



But I look back with the greatest pride and exultation of all to the 

 time when I " landed " my old friend and, on this question, opponent, 

 the late Frank Buckland, for no one more ridiculed the idea of stirring 

 sulky fish when it first became known than the original Editor of Land 

 and Water. He with his friend Mr. Clifford were fishing their private 



