200 TROUT FISHING 



knowledge and for skill. Minnows are of 

 considerable variety, and the trout are no 

 less particular about them than they are 

 about flies. Sometimes they wUl look 

 only at a blue minnow, sometimes at a 

 brown one, sometimes at a green one, 

 sometimes at a gray one with a scarlet 

 belly, sometimes at one which is all of 

 silver hue, and sometimes at one which 

 seems to be made of clay. At times they 

 will be rather indifferent to any or all of 

 them, and take an Alexandra fly. If 

 you look at an Alexandra in the water, 

 you will see that the feathers of which it 

 is made shrink and close, becoming com- 

 pact, instead of tending to expand, as do 

 the wings of most ordinary flies. The 

 Alexandra, therefore, is not really a fly : it 

 is a minnow in disguise. This seems to 

 have been discovered by certain makers of 

 tackle, who now openly busk the pea- 

 cock's feathers on a triad of long- 

 shanked hooks, with a swivel at the top, 

 and call the result the Halcyon Spinner. 

 With all these minnows to choose 



