for clear water, a lighter or yellow fly is more suitable for 

 darker waters, and has been found especially killing at the 

 close of the day. An excellent practice is to arrange the 

 " cast " so as, if possible, to embrace the varied taste of Mr 

 Trout, or to meet his caprice. A black, brown, red, and 

 dun fly will always be found to kill well, and will prove 

 the happy medium between the opposing theories of the 

 theoretical and practical school of anglers. Mr Stewart, 

 for instance, recommends, " When commencing a day's fish- 

 ing at any season, the angler should begin with three or 

 four different varieties, say a black spider for the tail fly, a 

 woodcock wing with yellow silk and red hackle for the first 

 dropper, a hare-lug body and corn-bunting wing for the 

 second dropper, and a dun-coloured spider for the fourth 

 fly." It will be easily seen which are the favourites, and 

 then the others may be changed. The tail fly and the third 

 dropper will be found almost invariably to be the most 

 deadly. Larger flies may be used in rivers not much fished, 

 but in well fished cLar streams the flies must be small and 

 neatly made. 



So great is the difference of opinion amongst anglers of 

 experience, with respect to the number of flies necessary, 

 that Mr Fitzgibbon (" Ephemera ") gives a reduced list of 

 sixty-eight flies, while Mr Ronald, in his " Fly-Fisher's 

 Entomology," seems to have exhausted the insect creation 

 in his endeavours to show all the flies a fly-fisher may use. 

 On the other hand, Mr Stewart (" Practical Angler ") gives 

 only six, which for curiosity we extract : 



1. A woodcock wing, with a single turn of a red hackle, 

 or landrail feather, dressed with yelloAv silk, freely exposed 

 on the body. For fishing in dark-coloured waters this fly 

 may be dressed with scarlet thread. 



