168 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



The Yellow Sally should be mentioned here, as it has a place 

 in all angling works, and a high character with some anglers. 

 I have no faith in it, however, and never took fish with it but 

 once, and although I have often seen swarms of it rising, I 

 have very seldom seen the trout much enamoured of it. A 

 straggler will be taken now and then ; and once, as I have 

 said, I found the trout taking it well, and others tell me that 

 they have done so likewise. I give the dressing, and the angler 

 can please himself. Body, pale yellow crewel, ribbed with light 

 tawny brown silk ; legs, pale lemon-coloured hackle ; wings, 

 some light transparent feather, stained of the palest watery 

 yellow. A keeper once told me, as a reason for the fish refusing 

 this fly, that " they was too bitter altogether." Hook, No. 10. 



The Barm Fly. This fly, which is of the trichopterous 

 order, and belonging to the Phryganidae, is an evening fly. 

 I find no mention of it in any book but Jackson's. It is a 

 capital fly, and a very general favourite in the southern and 

 midland counties. I can speak to its slaughterous propen- 

 sities, having killed well with it on the Wandle, the Darenth, 

 and the Colne, where it has a local repute, under the name of 

 " the nobbier/' and on the Itchen, where it is wrongly called 

 a sedge, and is dressed with a dark wing for the evening. It 

 seldom comes out till dusk and thus has no doubt escaped more 

 particular notice.* Body, fat and large, of fur of a light 

 creamy brown hue ; hackle red ; wing, dark speckled cock 

 pheasant ; hooks, Nos. 7 and 8. 



The Fcetid Brown, or mushroom fly, is one of the same order 

 and genus as the last. It has its name from its emitting a 

 faint foetid odour when handled. It is not very much appreci- 

 ated by anglers generally. On warm evenings, towards the 

 end of May, and throughout June and July, it may be seen 

 in small whisks or swarms, skipping up and down over the 

 water now amongst the willows low upon the water, now 

 high in the air, seldom settling, but constantly hovering over 

 the water. It is a fine, fat, and tempting bait, and late in the 

 afternoon, or early in the evening, may be seen thickly on the 

 water. Dress it on a No. 8 or 9 hook ; body full, of mixed 

 hare's ear and water-rat fur ; a few strands of hare's ear 



* A curious fact with respect to this fly is that it appears to take to and 

 quit certain localities for years. On the Colne, when I first became ac- 

 quainted with it, it was plentiful and a first-rate killer for three or four 

 years. It then disappeared for two years, and the trout altogether refused 

 the imitation. This last season, however, it has reappeared, and now takes 

 there as well as ever. F. F. 



