CHOICE OF PATTERN 95 



I saw an odd fish take a natural mayfly, and I did 

 certainly succeed in killing two and a half brace of 

 sizable trout with an imitation of the male green 

 mayfly No. i in the Test. My experience in the 

 years from 1903 to, and including, 191 1 refers to a 

 part of the river where in days gone by the show of 

 green drake was quite remarkable. The spent gnat 

 or imago of the mayfly has on a few occasions scored 

 in my hands during the years referred to. 



Some observant fishermen, although unable to 

 adduce any logical argument in support of their 

 contention, anticipate a further development of this 

 gradual decline, until some day the mayfly on 

 the Hampshire streams will become as extinct as 

 the antediluvian animals. Others suggest that such 

 vagaries have been noted in the past, and that 

 after the lapse of some few years those of us 

 who survive will witness, if I may so call it, a re- 

 juvenescence of the green drake, and see hatches as 

 great and sport among the big fish as surprising as 

 ever — Qui vivra vei-ra. 



As I hope that this book may live after me and be 

 of interest and use to generations of dry-fly fishermen 

 yet unborn, I am inclined to hedge, and will there- 

 fore include here some advice as to fishing the may- 

 fly and the patterns to use, and give a resumd of the 

 life history and habits of this insect in the entomo- 

 logical part of the book. 



The dry-fly man is now supposed to rent, own, or 

 have permission to fish a stretch of one of the few 



