96 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



rivers where mayflies are still in abundance. He 

 will, no doubt, have impressed on his keeper the 

 importance of letting him have early information of 

 the first show of the fly. On some day, which may 

 be as early as the 15th May, and in any case at some 

 date between then and the end of the month, he will 

 probably receive a wire saying that the fly is up. 

 This will mean that the keeper has seen three or 

 four of the jacks — the slang name in the south for 

 the male subimagines — and very likely he will urge 

 his master to start at once. 



My advice to him is to wait at least three or four 

 days, and then he will probably be too soon, and see 

 only occasional flies hatching out, and no fish taking 

 them. In another day or two the fish will appear to 

 have gone mad. They will be diving about in all 

 directions, splashing and taking something under 

 water with loud resounding floops. This is what 

 some locals call the fish running after the fly. It is 

 nothing of the kind. The trout are plunging about 

 after the active nymphs swimming up to the surface, 

 where they will assume the subimago or first winged 

 stage. To cast over fish under these conditions is to 

 prick and scare a number of them, and render all so 

 shy that it is quite possible that with the best hatch 

 imaginable the fish will not take either the natural or 

 artificial well. 



A few days later, when the hatch of fly comes on 

 and the surface of the water is covered and the air 

 is full of the green drakes, the trout will ^eltle 



