90 OLD FLIES IN NEW DRESSES 



the fisherman will come very near in shade, 

 colour, and movement through the water, 

 at any rate, to one of them. 



If this conclusion at which I have arrived 

 is correct, as I believe it to be, would 

 it not be wiser to try to imitate, not the 

 natural fly, but some of these numerous 

 aquatic creatures? They are numerous 

 enough, and a large number of them are 

 easy to imitate ; but as yet but little has 

 been done, except with regard to the 

 spiders, in this direction. I am also sure 

 that the success of the so-called spider 

 patterns used in wet fly-fishing has been 

 due to quite a different cause to that 

 which those who first used them and 

 those who use them now believe, as these 

 imitations are made from the insect as it 

 appears when out of the water. The 

 spider goes from its nest to the surface 

 of the water and back again by a thread 

 stretched between, and so would hardly 

 move through the water, as its imitation 

 is made to do by the fisherman. Those of 

 the so-called spider-flies which are sup- 

 posed to represent some of the Epheme- 

 riclse, are, for the reasons I have given 



