152 THE COMPLETE ANGLEK. [PART I. 



take notice, that the fish lies or swims nearer the bottom, 

 and in deeper water, in winter than in summer ; and also 

 nearer the bottom, in any cold day, and then, gets nearer 

 the lee-side of the water. 



But I promised to tell you, more, of the fly-fishing for a 

 trout ; which I may have time enough to do, for you see it 

 rains May butter., Eirst for a MAT-FLY : you may make 



May-fly (large specimen). 



his body with greenish coloured crewel or willowish colour ; 

 darkening it in most places with waxed silk ; (or ribbed with 

 black hair ; or, some of them, ribbed with silver thread ;) 

 and such wings, for the colour, as you see the fly to have at 

 that season, nay, at that very day on the water. Or you 

 may make the oak-fly : with an orange, tawny, and black 

 ground ; and the brown of a mallard's feather for the wings. 1 

 And you are to know, that these two are most excellent 

 flies, that is, the May-fly and the oak-fly. 2 



1 Some dub the oak -fly with black wool, and Isabella-coloured mohair, 

 and bright brownish bear's hair, warped on with yellow silk, but the head 

 of an ash -colour ; others dub it with an orange, tawny, and black ground ; 

 others with blackish wool and gold-twist ; the wings of the brown of a 

 mallard's feather. Bowlker, in his " Art of Angling," p. 63, says, "The 

 body may be made of a bittern's feather, and the wings of the feather of a 

 woodcock's wing." H. 



2 The cad bait or oak worm on the point of the hook, with the artificial 

 fly, is recommended. When the fish appear at the top, they will take the 

 oak worm on the water rather than under it, or than the fly itself. After 

 you have dibbed with these flies on the surface till they are dead, cut off 

 their wings and fish with them at mid-water, or a little lower : this is 



