THE RED QUILL 101 



been able to persuade myself exactly what the Red Quill 

 means to the trout. According to my experience, it is of 

 no service on a chalk stream in April. But from early 

 May to the end of the season there are few days when it 

 is not worth a trial. But why ? Some suggest that it is 

 taken for a spinner. It may be. Others say whirling 

 blue dun. This seems far fetched. On my own water 

 its most deadly time is, according to my observation, 

 when the trout, though feeding freely and to all appearance 

 rising, are in fact taking nymphs just below the surface — 

 but without bulging. The absence of the head-and-tail 

 action proves that they are not taking spent spinner, and 

 they are letting the subimago go by. Why, then, do they 

 take the Red Quill ? There is one other fly and one only 

 I know which they take in the same way, and that is 

 Pope's Nondescript. But that they will take at times 

 when they are feeding on nymph in any fashion, either 

 bulging, nymphing without bulging, or tailing. 



In the case of Pope's Nondescript, I imagine the broad 

 gold tinsel of the body (a feature shared with Gold-ribbed 

 Hare's ear) is advertisement enough to call attention to an 

 attraction existing in a plane in which, for the moment, the 

 trout is not engaged. The Pink Wickham no doubt 

 attracts the tailing trout in the same way. 



But except for the hackle, which, if sharp and bright, 

 may have a certain brilliance, the Red Quill is a modest 

 little fly enough. Yet it does attract many a trout which 

 is normally feeding below to take it on the surface. I 

 have been driven to wonder whether it is taken for a 

 hatching nymph, being generally darker than the fly on 

 the surface. Yet this can hardly be a satisfactory solu- 

 tion. I am left with the facts and no theory to account 

 for them. For this reason I seldom use the Red Quill. 



