Trout Flies. 141 



Angler and his Friends," 1850, is a friend to few 

 flies. " I would fish any river with three Palmers 

 of my own choosing." 



Ephemera, "Handbook of Angling," 1847, gives 

 a list of ninety-two flies. Ephemera is a violent 

 opponent to everything that is not the exact imita- 

 tion of the natural fly ; and no wonder, when he 

 recommends such an overwhelming list, and when 

 anyone hints that flies quite unlike the living fly 

 will capture trout, he cuts the argument short by 

 such a sentence as this : " The majority of man- 

 kind are mad on one subject or another, perhaps 

 the majority of animals are similarly so ; these mad 

 fly-fishers are successful, no doubt, because they 

 meet with mad fish, which are more readily taken 

 with fantastic flies than with naturally coloured and 

 shaped ones that is the only way I can account for 

 the heterodoxy." Did he write this in jest or in 

 earnest ? An experienced fisherman like Ephe- 

 mera ought to know that colour often beats exact 

 imitation. He cannot answer the question as 

 to salmon flies. " No natural flies are like the 

 artificial ; " that is true, he says, but unaccount- 

 able. Again, trout of all kinds take the big gaudy 

 salmon fly in the rivers and lochs of Scotland. I 

 suppose these are his mad fish. He says also, " if 

 fish preferred nondescript artificial flies I may 

 reasonably conclude they would prefer nondescript 



