i64 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK 



" But my experience has caused me to think less of 

 such possibilities by reason of the definite hatches of 

 other flies which I have seen and on which I have 

 depended for such sport as I have had. Three kinds 

 of fly have most impressed themselves on my notice. 

 The first is the brown silverhorns, which appears in 

 vast quantities in both July and September — probably 

 also in August, but I have never been to Blagdon in 

 that month. The fish certainly take this fly on the 

 surface to some extent, but not, I think, so eagerly as 

 its abundance would seem to warrant. Nor have they 

 taken very kindly to such imitations as I have been 

 able to offer them, but that may be because none of 

 my imitations have been worth much. The grannom 

 of the ordinary pattern on a No. 2 or No. 3 hook 

 has secured me one or two fish which were rising at 

 silverhorns, and a hackle-fly, known in Wales as the 

 early brown, has also killed a fish or two." 



" But the two flies which really did make the trout 

 rise were respectively a midge with a grass-green 

 body * and a midge with an olive body. The first was 

 about in myriads one September and a friend, who 

 was fishing with me, imitated it with the simple 

 material of some green wool, snipped from the anti- 

 macassar of our long-suffering hostess, and a white 

 hackle. The imitation was quite effective and, fished 

 both dry and wet, gained a number of rises. The 

 weather at the time of this visit was hot and steamy, 

 and the midges could be seen like columns of smoke 



* Mr. Mosely informs me that Mr. Sheringham's grass-green midge 

 of Blagdon is called Chironomus viridis Macq. 



