94 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



nounced it to be the very best fly ever dressed for 

 the purpose ; he calls it " the chap with the red 

 tie," from the ruddy colour of the horsehair at its 

 head. 



Of the old standards the curses and black gnat are 

 the best imitations. Some of the old school of dry- 

 fly men advocate the use of fancy patterns for smutting 

 fish such as wickham, pink wickham, orange bumble, 

 furnace, etc., also silver sedge dressed on oo hook, red 

 quill, detached badger, or claret quill — but I am doubt- 

 ful whether these latter should be classified as fancy 

 patterns as they were probably originally intended to 

 imitate some natural insects — the silver sedge, one of 

 the small Trichoptera, red quill, detached badger, and 

 probably claret quill, female olive and iron-blue 

 spinners. 



In olden days it was always said that quite at the 

 end of May, or commence- 

 The mayfly season. ment of June, the first appear- 



ance of the mayfly might be 

 expected. The hatch of mayfly has in recent years 

 appreciably diminished in a large number of the chalk- 

 streams, and in many this diminution has progressed 

 by leaps and bounds, until at length some of the old 

 hands have not thought it worth while even to in- 

 clude mayflies in their outfit, or to carry them during 

 what used to be styled the carnival of the dry- 

 fly fisherman. From my own personal experience, 

 between 1903 and 191 1, the new patterns of mayfly 

 have remained almost untried in their boxes. In 191 1 



