74 FLIES, FLY-DRESSING, ETC. 



see the colour of a fly very distinctly. The worst 

 light of all for seeing its colour is when it is placed 

 between you and tha sky, as the trout see it. And 

 when the fly is rolled round by every current, and 

 sometimes seen through the medium of a few feet 

 of running water, the idea that they can detect its 

 colour to a shade is highly improbable. Even 

 granting they could, there is no reason for supposing 

 they would reject it on that account. Flies of the 

 same kind differ so much in colour that we could 

 show the reader a May-fly almost black, and a May- 

 fly almost yellow, and of all the intermediate shades. 



It is singular inconsistency, that anglers scrupu- 

 lously exact about a shade of colour draw their flies 

 across and up stream in a way in which no natural 

 insect was ever seen moving, as if a trout could not 

 detect an alteration in the motion much more easily 

 than a deviation in the colour of a fly. 



The argument brought by anglers in support of 

 these views is, that having fished unsuccessfully all 

 the morning, they changed their flies and had good 

 sport, or that when they were getting nothing they 

 met with some celebrated local angler, who gave 

 them the fly peculiar to the district, after which 

 they met with success. We think that on most of 

 these occasions the trout take better, not because 

 the new fly is more to their liking, but because as 

 the day advances they are more inclined to feed. 

 We have frequently proved this by re-changing to 

 our flies which at first proved unsuccessful, and 



