is permitted. Ultimately it is hoped that streams can 

 be managed in such a way that they will produce 

 maximum numbers of game fishes and at the samo 



[time be restored as nearly as possible to their 

 natural condition. 



Artificial flies and the fisherman's entomology. — 

 Whether entomology has a place in the art and lore 

 of angling is a moot question. Leonard (1950) takes 

 a positive position, stating that, "the fisherman with 



ha knowledge of aquatic insects and the important 

 relationship they bear to the fish he wants to catch 

 is better equipped with a single fly than is the man 

 who knows nothing of such things though he sports 

 a jacket full of fly-boxes stuffed with crisp, unmouthed 

 flies of every description. The man with an under- 

 standing of aquatic life knows how and where to 

 place his casts, fishing those places his knowledge 



'tells him suit the lure and the fish, whereas the other 

 fellow will cast at random, forever changing flies, 

 fondly hoping that eventually he will discover a fly 

 of some sort that will catch a fish . . . The fly-dresser 

 in particular is obliged to know as much as he pos- 

 sibly can about the life cycles of the insects his 

 flies are designed to represent. The more he knows 

 about their aquatic and aerial stages, the more intel- 

 ligently he will design, balance, and dress the copies." 

 That Leonard is not alone in his position is indi- 

 cated by a literature that runs into hundreds of titles. 

 One of the earliest accounts (ca. 200 A.D.) is by 

 Aelianus in De Animalium Natura (1611) so the Mace- 

 donians are credited 'with the first use of artificial 

 flies in the river Astraeus. In England the subject 

 came into its own with such classics as A Treatyse 

 of Fysshynge With an Angle by Dame Juliana Berners 



(1496). Later classics include: Izaak Walton's The 

 Compleat Angler, or the contemplative man's recrea- 

 tion, being a discourse of rivers, fishponds, fish and 



[fishing (1653) (5th ed., 1676, with Cotton's Instruc- 

 tions how to angle for a Trout or Grayling in a clear 



^stream, containing many entomological notes); Ronalds' 

 The Fly-Fisher's Entomology (1836); Halford's Dry-fly 

 Entomology (1897); Mosely's The Dry-fly Fisherman's 

 Entomology (1921); and Harris' An angler's Entomo- 

 logy (1952). A noteworthy American title of recent 

 date is J. Edson Leonard's Flies, their origin, natural 

 history, tying, hooks, patterns and selections of dry 



'and wet flies, nymphs, etc. (1950). 



"Fundamentally [as stated by Leonard, 1950J, 



l artificial flies are made according to two schools of 



! thought. The first, the Impressionistic, believes that 

 approximate size, general appearance and color are 

 sufficient to lure a trout under all conditions, while 



'the second, the Realistic, demands precise duplication 

 of an insect." 



In the books mentioned above and in literally 



i hundreds of others, we find an astonishing amount of 



\ fact and fiction, of novelty and tradition, of superfi- 

 ciality and meticulous care. As an illustration of the 

 latter the following quote from "Piscator" in the 

 Preface to the sixth edition of Ronalds (1862) is typ- 

 ical, stating that, "he has been induced to paint both 



! the natural and artificial fly from nature, to etch them 



45 

 Usinger: Introduction 



with his own hand, and t<> colour, or superintend the 

 colouring of each particular impression." 



Scientific competence was added to the empirical 



observations of former tunc- b) the late Martin Mo-ely, 



deputy keeper of entomology in charge of the principal 

 groups of aquatic insect- at ilic British Mu 

 (Natural History). Mosel) was a H<. tciate of 



Hal ford and after his death controlled a length of the 

 River Test at and below Moitisfont (England), for a 

 joint period of about eighteen years. Mosely's contri- 

 bution to dry-fly entomological literaturo was to supply 

 at Halford's request "a series of plates, . . . based 

 on modern scientific ideas, and illustrating in color 

 the insects which are of main importance" u> the dry- 

 fly fisherman." In setting out to accomplish this 

 Mosely stated that "I am . . . inclined to regard such 

 a task as this with the eye of an entomologist rather 

 than that of the fly-fisherman; and throwing aside such 

 considerations as whether this fly is acceptable to 

 the trout, whether that fly has a bitter taste and is 

 allowed to float away unnoticed, I have attempted to 

 describe the flies which I myself have found in plenty, 

 and which I think my brother anglers will also meet 

 with by the river's bank." 



"Dry flies" are meant to imitate insects that fall 

 onto the water surface and float without wetting. 

 Actually, such "driftfood" includes all sorts of 

 terrestrial insects that fall onto the water from over- 

 hanging vegetation. In practice, however, most dry 

 flies are made to imitate adults of the aquatic groups 

 — mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, and true flies. 

 "Wet flies" are those that are fished under water, 

 including adult insects that have become wet and 

 immature nymphs and larvae of various kinds. Because 

 of the skills required to select and cast flies properly 

 the dry-fly fisherman enjoys a higher status than 

 those who employ other techniques and lures. 



In England, a special fisherman's nomenclature has 

 been developed for the commonest species and higher 

 groups of aquatic insects. Since our own literature 

 and culture has drawn so heavily on British sources 

 many of these names have been carried over, at times 

 inappropriately, to our fauna. The resulting confusion 

 is probably of little consequence to the fisherman but 



TABLE 7 (Introduction) 



Scientific and Angler's names for Some Common 

 Groups of Aquatic Insects 



Scientific name 



Angler's names 



Ephemeroptera 



Mayfly, drake, quill, Brown, Cahill 

 Developmental stages: nymph, dun 

 (subimago), spinner (imago), 

 spent-wing (wet imago) 



Plecoptera 



stonefly, perlid, willow, sally 



Trichoptera 



caddisfly, caddicefly, sedge, grannom, 

 fish moth, stickworm, caseworm 



Diptera 



crane fly, midge, punkie, gnat 

 mosquito, bloodworm 



Megaloptera 

 Corydalidae 

 Sialidae 



Dobsonfly, hellgrammite 

 Alderfly 



Odonata 



Dragonfly, damselfly, snake feeder, 

 devil's darning needle, mosquito hawk 



