160 AN ANGLER'S SEASON 



with clinging hackles and without wings ; 

 the hackles, if of the right colour, are 

 very like the unopened wings. Again, 

 sometimes it is the spent gnat that the 

 fish desire. Then the appropriate lure 

 is one with wings constructed so as to 

 seem tattered and misshapen. How, it 

 may be asked, are we to know which of 

 the three patterns is befitting in any 

 particular hour? Only by experiment. 

 The trouts' preference for a particular 

 pattern is, strangely, in despite of the 

 fact that Mayflies in each of the three 

 stages are on the water at the same time. 



