124 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



which he found successful. I hope I may be forgiven 

 for saying that I do not think his method presents the 

 right line of approach to the best theory of imitation or 

 representation of nymphs, for his patterns were intended 

 to be fished down-stream and dragging, and they therefore 

 make an appeal to the same propensity in the trout which 

 attracts him to a spinning minnow or a dragging, winged 

 wet fly. 



In shape of body the nymph may be easily imitated. 

 Colour is difficult to set down with precision in writing so 

 that the fly dresser can reproduce it with certainty, and the 

 best line of attack seems to me to be suggested by one of 

 the oldest nymph patterns, the Half-stone. Here one has 

 a bright, almost water-coloured, outer hackle, almost 

 invisible to a fish looking up, and a nymph-shaped body 

 well displayed, with the thorax of mole's fur spun on 

 yellow silk, and the yellow floss lower half of the body 

 which goes green in the water. 



For colour, the angler who desires exact representation 

 in that respect would have to go to the living nymph. 

 A dip of a muslin net into a clump of river-weed would 

 produce a large variety of nymphs in all colours, from 

 pale yellow to darkest olive, and even to carrot colour. 



It was on a variation of the Half-stone dressed with a 

 lower half of wool instead of floss that the famous Carrot 

 fly was modelled. In a series of modifications it has killed 

 for a brother angler many a good fish, fished as a nymph 

 on crack waters on the Itchen, the Test, and elsewhere. 

 And dressed large it has served as a May-fly nymph on 

 some bulging days on the Kennet, and has beaten the 

 winged fly and the Straddlebug hollow. 



Representation or suggestion rather than imitation is 

 what the dresser of nymphs should aim at. That is one 

 reason why dubbings outclass quills for bodies of nymphs. 



