CREEPER AND STONE-FLY FISHING. 49 



and prepares to come out of the water to have room to do it. 

 It has been noticed, and a long succession of generations of 

 trout have noticed it as well as man, that when a creeper feels 

 the desire for wings coming over him he commonly climbs 

 upon a stone hence perhaps Stone-fly ; now, to get upon 

 the stone or out of the river he must leave his shelter under 

 the stone and go abroad ; it happens very often that, in 

 the one case he is caught by a little stream too strong for 

 him, and swept into a rapid ; in the other he loses his hold 

 upon the stone, and falls back into the water. In both cases 

 the trout are there on the look-out for him. The proper 

 time, therefore, to fish the creeper is just when he begins to 

 move, preparatory to his final stage. This may be told 

 from the time when you begin to find him under stones 

 close to the water's edge, which in warm spring weather will 

 be about the 24th of April. From then up to the appearance 

 of the Stone-fly itself he can distance all comers. 



The creeper should be fished with two hooks, his head up 

 the line, i.e. with his front legs just resting on the gut, the 

 bottom hook put in below the thorax, and the upper one 

 right through the side, under the chin, as shown on plate 

 12. Choose a large creeper for preference, and trout often 

 take the yellow ones better than those which are altogether 

 black. For creeper-fishing your gut trace should be ten or 

 eleven feet long, and you must fish up-stream. The lower 

 and clearer the water is, the more chance of sport. Fishing 

 a line about one and a half times the length of your rod, 

 throw your creeper into the neck of a strong running stream 

 the stronger the better just such a place as your eye 

 tells you any helpless atom is likely to be carried to by the 

 force of water ; the trout know the place, and are on the 

 look-out. In a fine water your creeper will sink of itself, 

 and you will require no shot on your cast. Trout never 

 take a creeper on the surface, but always underneath. If 



D 



