FLIES AND FLY-DRESSING 197 



again, and so long as it floats free and 

 does not " drag " he will not so much 

 as shy at it. One of two things only can 

 be wrong from the fish's point of view — 

 this fly is either false in colour or false in 

 tone. Here we may speculate endlessly, 

 but till we grasp the fish's point of view we 

 shall not really know.* 



In our selection of killing and useful 

 flies, it is doubtful if the professional, shop- 



* Since these lines were written, it has been my 

 good fortune to discover a most interesting account 

 of successful experiments carried out by Sir Herbert 

 Maxwell (see p. 130, " Salmon and Sea Trout." from 

 the Angler's Library) on an English trout stream 

 with a " bright scarlet " Mayfly. After describing 

 the satisfactory results obtained with this abnormally 

 coloured fly, the author adds the following : " There 

 was some difficulty in getting the dressers to under- 

 stand that it was important that the shade of these 

 flies should not be uniform ; that there should be 

 dark patches at the head and shoulders, and dark 

 markings on the wings. In short, that a red May- 

 Jly when photographed should appear exactly like a 

 grey one." The italics are mine, and point very 

 definitely to a fish's sense of "tone" and ''colour 

 value/' which in the case of red and grey could be 

 practically identical ; nor need we, I suggest, from 

 this, argue that trout are colour-blind. Science 

 affirms that the human being is colour-blind to 

 rather more than three-quarters of the full colour 

 scale which light creates. May we not also reason- 

 ably allow the trout his due share ? 



