DIVISION II 



SOME FURTHER MINOR TACTICAL 

 STUDIES 



I 

 SOME PROBLEMS 



I. THE HARE'S-EAR PUZZLE. 



The latter days of April, with their outstanding hatch 

 of large medium olive duns, bring back this recurring 

 problem for the colourist. In a sense I am a colourist. 

 That is, I recognize — I am forced by the logic of facts to 

 realize — that the trout take certain artificial patterns 

 for certain natural flies. I admit the likeness is often not 

 obvious, and I infer from that — to the great indignation 

 of " Jim- J am " and others — that the trout do not, in all 

 probability, see colour as we see it. 



For it is the fact that whenever I see the greenish olive 

 body of this spring dun I know that the season of the 

 Hare's ear — the Gold-ribbed Hare's ear — has come; and 

 I put up the Gold-ribbed Hare's ear with the utmost 

 confidence, and I find it more certainly and infallibly right 

 than any other dressing I know, unless I except the large 

 Orange Quill when the blue-winged olive is on. But that 

 is in the evenings, in the dusk, while the Gold-ribbed Hare's 

 ear kills in the full light of day. 



Why, then, should a pattern dressed with a body of a 

 dusty grey-brown, ribbed with flat gold and extremely 

 rough, be taken by the trout for a smooth-bodied fly 

 with an olive-green body ? 



90 



