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particularly if the water is turbulent. " Ephemera " 

 says: "This famous fly is the opprobium of fly- 

 makers. Try how they will they cannot, in my 

 opinion, imitate it well. The wings are their greatest 

 foil. In making the body they succeed tolerably well. 

 Still, the best imitation is defective, and, except upon 

 rare occasions, the artificial May-fly is not a deadly 

 bait." My experience has been the very contrary of 

 this. Whether it is from the fly-tiers having suc- 

 ceeded in imitating the natural fly since " Ephemera " 

 wrote, or not, I do not know, but I have before me 

 two specimens tied by Mrs. Ogden that I make no 

 doubt would bring me ten or a dozen brace of trout on 

 a good day in the season. May-flies are often made 

 with cork bodies, but I am not partial to them, for 

 the same objection which applies generally to floating 

 flies, viz. : that trout find they have something hard 

 and unnatural in their mouths, and immediately 

 reject it. On a dry bright day use it as a dry fly, 

 but on a very wet or windy day fish with it a few 

 inches under the surface, and, as Walton says, you 

 will have " store of trouts." On one occasion last 

 season I caught ten brace of trout with one May-fly 

 obtained of Messrs. Alfred and Son, and have it by 

 me now, but there is not a vestige of wing left, all 

 having been bitten off. Mr. Ronalds recommends it 

 to be dressed as follows : " Body, the middle part of 

 a pale straw-coloured floss silk, ribbed with silver 

 twist ; extremities (head and tail), brown peacock's 

 harl, tied with light brown silk thread ; tail, three 

 rabbit's whiskers ; wings and legs, made buzz with 

 a mottled feather of the mallard, stained olive." 

 Instead of the bodies being made of straw-coloured 



