FLY FISHING FOR TROUT 29 



using the alder. But far more often the down- 

 stream method is efficacious. I was sent last year 

 a pattern of a small partridge hackle fly which had 

 killed several good trout on the Mimram, all tailing 

 fish. On enquiry I found that the fisherman, a 

 clergyman who, like most of the cloth who are 

 anglers, is a capital performer with the rod, had caught 

 these fish by casting up-stream and letting the fly 

 sink just above where they were feeding. It cannot, 

 of course, be expected that as good a basket can be 

 obtained when trout are ' tailing,' as when they are 

 rising. Nevertheless no one need despair of killing 

 some 'warrantable' fish when he sees not noses, but 

 tails, breaking the surface of the river he is about to 

 exploit. 



As I have before mentioned, hackle flies are 

 most useful. In fact, winged ones (always except- 

 ing the alder) are really not worth thinking about 

 in connection with ' tailing ' trout. Palmers, Zulus, 

 spiders, all do execution. But the fisherman must 

 not expect that a 'tailer' will be incited to hook 

 himself at once. Endless perseverance will in all 

 probability have to be exercised. For remember 

 that a trout feeding in this fashion is rather like 

 a man enjoying a particularly good dinner, to whom 

 a stranire and incongruous dish is suddenly offered 



