282 SALMON AND TROUT. 
should in general be an imitation, and on clear and often-fished 
waters a very close one, of some particular insect, I have no 
shadow of a doubt ; nor do I believe that anyone who has 
fished in the Derwent, the Driffield water, the Teme, or the 
Itchin, will hesitate to agree with me. Again and again have 
I found the ‘ March browns’ supersede every other fly early in 
the season, when the natural insect, which I had imitated most 
carefully, floated on the water by thousands ; nor do I doubt 
that at such times Mr. Bainbridge’s advice, to fish at once with 
three March browns slightly varied in tint and size, is most 
judicious. I have seen in like manner the little ‘ iron-blue’ on 
a cold morning strong on the water, when I could not stir a 
fin with any other lure. The day warmed—a shower softened 
the wind—and the recent favourite was a useless appendage to 
my line; while a larger, gayer insect, visible on the water, 
warned me, not in vain, that the ‘yellow dun’ must now be 
taken into council. How often, again, in July and August, do 
the artificial fern fly and ant fly—killing through the sultry 
hours while the natural insects are also conspicuous —give 
place towards evening to that late-fluttering tempter the red- 
spinner, whom I have dropped on the water scarce distinguish- 
able among his living likenesses ! 
The green-drake,! again (better known perhaps as the ‘ May 
fly’), is a strong case in point. It is on the water little more 
than a fortnight, a large and ‘ken-speckle’ insect, and through- 
out that time it is very difficult, during the hours of its appear- 
ance, to induce a trout, in the streams where it is bred, to look 
at any artificial fly save a palpable imitation of this beautiful 
creature. To complete the argument, the same imitation is 
utterly useless on those English streams which do not produce 
the real insect. 
Again, the experienced fly fisher will acknowledge the fact, 
that what the initiated call ‘palmers’ are taken, especially in 
1 It may be worth remark that, on the lakes of Westmeath (in this point 
very unlike those of Scotland), the May fly has its killing period, and, as in 
England, kills almost to the exclusion of every other fly. 
