DRY-FLY AT BLAGDON 165 



in the air at various points of the lake shore. I must 

 confess that I have never seen them since myself, but 

 I am told that they still make their appearance in 

 appropriate weather. They should be hailed with 

 joy when seen, for they certainly cause more en- 

 thusiasm among the fish than do the silverhorns. 

 We found that most of the fish we caught on that 

 visit contained numbers of the insects in their gullets 

 and stomachs." 



" These midges are biggish flies, quite as big as the 

 biggest gnat one encounters, to one's sorrow, in the 

 Broads and other marshy districts, if not bigger ; and 

 they have, I think, rather more substantial bodies, 

 and I do not consider that a light-wired No. 3 hook is 

 too big for the imitation. This is an advantage for a 

 place which contains such large trout as Blagdon. 

 Where the fish average 2^ lb. and may run to 5 lb. 

 or more I personally feel much happier with a hook of 

 reasonable size." 



" The olive-bodied midge is bigger still, and it can 

 certainly be tied on a No. 3 hook without risk of 

 overdoing the hook. This fly was for a long time a 

 great puzzle to me. I used to see extraordinary 

 rises of big trout going on on calm evenings, and 

 I never could make out what the. fish were rising at. 

 Flogging away with the salmon flies which one used 

 to use as a matter of course would have not the least 

 effect, and I got to despair of doing any good when 

 the Blagdon fish began to move to fly of an evening. 

 It seemed to me that they were taking some minute 



