CHOICE OF PATTERN 89 



have not seen a dozen examples of the fly on a part 

 of the river where formerly it was most plentiful. 



I have tried, with the kind co-operation of my good 

 friend Mr. Martin h\ Mosely, to reintroduce it, but 

 unfortunately my efforts have been in vain. We 

 imported from parts of the Kennet, where it is still 

 plentiful, great numbers of the caddis — its immature 

 form — as well as laying down thousands of the blue- 

 green egg sacs from which the larvee are hatched. I 

 believe that it is still found in parts of the Salisbury 

 Avon as well as the Kennet. Its disappearance from 

 the Test is to be deplored, because it certainly was a 

 capital fly to fatten the trout in the spring. 



It was generally a source of deep disappointment to 

 the fisherman. In the days of its biggest hatch, when 

 the river from bank to bank was a seething mass of 

 struggling pupee, winged flies which had emerged 

 from their pupal envelopes and empty pupal shucks, 

 and the fish were boiling in all directions, his difficulty 

 was to distinguish the large fish from the undersized 

 ones. In such a commotion it is never easy to tell 

 one from another, and in the hurry and excitement 

 one generally selects the small fry. If one should 

 hook a fish of any size the result is too often a smash. 

 Seeing so many feeding fish and the continual disap- 

 pointment of hooking little ones cause most of us to 

 lose our coolness, and the natural result is too much 

 power in the strike. Worse than all, after a few 

 minutes the fish are gorged, and the rise at the 

 grannom is over for the day. 



