FLIES AS FOOD 71 



The crawling larvae have a way of hiding snuggled 

 under a thin layer of sand or weed, so as to be practically 

 invisible. It follows that they must frequent quiet waters. 

 Yet when spates occur they are no doubt washed out of their 

 shelters and become a prey to the trout. They too, again, 

 have an exposed stage when they ascend to hatch out as 

 winged flies; and it is in these exposed stages that the 

 imitation nymph or larva has its proper chance of success. 

 Obviously the nymphs or larvae cannot be imitated either 

 on the bottom or in the weeds. 



The winged insect will be taken hatching or hatched, 

 floating cocked, or caught and disabled, and again in the 

 spinner stage, floating cocked, or disabled, or spent, or, 

 again, dipping to lay her eggs. 



There are said to be cases where the female spinner 

 " creeps down into the water (enclosed within a film of air 

 with her wings collapsed so as to overlie the abdomen, and 

 with her setae closed together) to lay her eggs upon the 

 underside of stones." I have never seen such a happening, 

 but it is quoted from no less an authority than the Rev. 

 A. E. Eaton, and must unquestionably be in accordance 

 with the facts. 



The net result, therefore, as regards the Ephemeridae 

 is that effective representation of them for fly-fishing 

 purposes is as larvae or nymphs, when in open water, and 

 in the winged stages. 



Then there is the willow-fly or stone-fly series (Perlidae), 

 which in the subaqueous stages live on the bottom among 

 stones; and though in those stages they are no doubt 

 avidly taken by the trout when the trout can get at them, 

 they do not in those stages lend themselves to representa- 

 tion on a fly hook, and they are seldom in mid-water. 

 They can, therefore, only be usefully simulated in the 

 perfect or winged form. 



