376 SALMON AND TROUT. 
generally feed on the spent gnat, and rise very quietly and with 
no more commotion in the water than the mark of a minnow. 
It may be laid down as a rule that the best fish usually feed 
well on the nymph and spent gnat, and badly on the subimago. 
The reason probably is that when they are well on the nymph 
and take, or try to take, an occasional winged fly just out of the 
shuck, they are often baulked by the drake managing to fly 
away just at the moment they are rising ; hence they avoid the 
subimago, and keep on feeding on the nymph. After a time 
they find very few nymphs, and then naturally come on to the 
imago, which, lying flat on the water with its wings extended, 
is unable to fly, and falls an easy prey to the trout. 
Although, as a rule, the spent gnat is more plentiful on the 
water in the evening, and even sometimes after dark, yet occa- 
sionally trout during the day will prefer the imitation of it to 
that of the Green Drake. A week or more after the fly is over, 
trout taking duns will often be tempted by a spent gnat : it 
seems as if the memory of the flavour lingers in their minds. 
In wet weather great execution is sometimes wrought with the 
May-fly. Though heavy work to dry the fly thoroughly, it is none 
the less necessary to do so, and a perfectly dry cocked May-fly 
on a rainy day is almost certain death to a rising trout. It is, 
of course, more difficult to cast against the wind with a May-fly 
than with a small dun, but with a short length of gut and the 
use of the horizontal cast or downward cut it can be done. 
A half-hour before the hatch of the drake, the Alder or 
Welshman’s Button are often taken, and at times these or the 
Kimbridge sedge are taken in preference to the May-fly itself, 
even during the thickest of the rise. Sometimes, with a good 
show of the Ephemera on the water, none of the many patterns 
known will rise the trout. .In such a case try Flight’s Fancy 
dressed on a oo hook, or, if this should prove unsuccessful, the 
Wickham or Pink Wickham on hooks o or 1. If this will not 
tempt them, asa last resource try a sedge dressed large on hook 
No. 2 or 3. Perhaps the best pattern of sedge is that known 
as the Kimbridge, dressed thus :— 
