30 MINOR TACTICS OF THE CHALK STREAM 



down upon the fly in the water, I could see every 

 turn distinctly, and the dubbing was scarcely 

 noticeable, and I was glad that the tying silk 

 harmonized so perfectly with the hue of the 

 dubbing. 



The importance of the base colour of the tying 

 silk was still more strongly brought home to me a 

 day or two later. I had tied some imitations of a 

 pale watery dun which was on the water with a 

 pale starling wing, light ginger hackle and whisk, 

 and a mixture of opossum and hare's poll for 

 dubbing; but some I had tied with pale orange 

 silk, and some with that rich maroon colour called 

 Red Ant in Mr. Al dam's series of silks. The 

 grayling took those tied with pale orange freely, 

 but would not look at those tied with Red Ant. 



It may be less material in floating flies, but for 

 wet flies I have since always been careful to have 

 the tying silk either harmonious with the colour 

 of the natural subimago, or corresponding to the 

 colour of the spinner. For instance, for an Iron 

 Blue Dun I should use claret silk dubbed with 

 mole's fur or water-rat; for the old-fashioned 

 mole's fur Blue Dun, primrose to heighten the olive 

 effect in the dark blue ; primrose silk also for a 

 Hare's Ear ; in the Willow-Fly, orange silk under 

 the mole's fur or water-rat ; in the Grannom, green 

 very darkly waxed, or black ; and so on. The fact 

 is that the transparency of fur and feather is mar- 

 vellous. A starling's wing looks much denser than 



