56 FOR FLIES COLOUR, NOT FORM. [PART I. 
the Avon near Cot in Devonshire. I had up as 
a bob a small greyish-brown palmer made by one 
Godden at Whitchurch in Hampshire, and finding 
that the Trout evinced a decided preference for 
this, I put up another as a stretcher, tied by him at 
the same time and to the same pattern, and, so far 
as I could see, exactly similar to it. They would 
not however look at this one, but continued tak- 
ing the other freely, even after it was chewed to 
ribbons—the hackle unwound, and hanging an inch 
below the hook—until at last, in consequence of 
the silk following its example, I was obliged to 
discard the fly altogether. I replaced it with 
another of the same lot, but the great attraction 
was gone. Besides proving their penchant for a 
particular shade of colour and their indifference 
to mere form, this incident also shews the great 
nicety of sight possessed by Trout. On this oc- 
casion, out of two and a half dozen which I 
caught whilst I had these palmers up, at least 
two dozen and two fell to the share of the 
favourite bob. 
If the old rule of “alight fly for darkness 
and a dark fly for lightness” be ever at all correct, 
I think it can only be applicable to night-fishing, 
as I have certainly more frequently found the 
