March 18, 1893] 
THE FISHING GAZETTE 
1S9 
if not precisely the same manner as lobsters and 
prawns and crayfish carry their young ; and if a 
pair of adult shrimps are caught and the female 
—which is usually smaller than the male—be 
placed in the palm of the hand, a camel's hair 
pencil will detach the eggs or the young 
shrimp. This is to my mind the very best 
natural food for the young fish of seven or 
eight weeks old. It is exactly what one 
would expect a young trout to “ go ” for— 
an active little morsel, not absolutely micro¬ 
scopic, but still requiring a tolerably good pair 
of eyes to discover even when in the hollow of 
the hand. I can imagine nothing more suitable 
for the young trout, and a wise Providence has 
arranged that the young of our most valuable 
fresh water fish, viz , the trout, should require 
food just at the time when these, as well as many 
other forms of insect life, start. 
Trout which have fed principally on the fresh¬ 
water shrimp and snails will have red flesh, 
owing, I think, to some colouring matter in the 
Crustacea and mollusca. A plentiful supply of 
.salt-water mussels has this year caused the eggs 
of my breeding fish to be of a beautiful colour, 
much more pink than when the fish were fed 
almost entirely on horse-flesh. This colouring of 
the adult fish does not ensure the offspring being 
pink fleshed—this must necessarily depend on 
the food which the young fish eventually get. I 
have known many persons who do not consider 
the flavour of the pink-fleshed trout superior to 
that of a white-fleshed fish, always provided that 
the condition nj the fish is equal. It is certain 
Limn.® Peeegra and Spawn. 
that the red-fleshed fish are not more game in 
the water, and trout are frequently taken in the 
same stream within ten yards of each other, and 
one shall have red flesh and the other white flesh. 
I imagine that a trout has but two objects in 
life—one, and that the most important and im¬ 
perative, to fill his stomach when he can, and the 
other to reproduce his species. Provided a trout 
can find food which satisfies his hunger, he is not 
very particular whether he gets a good meal off 
shrimps, snails, worms, caddis, larvae, flies, 
minnows, offal from the drains, or even small 
fish of all kinds, not excepting those of his own 
species—very probably his own sons or daughters, 
nephews or neices, and there can be no reason 
for supposing that he cares much whether his 
flesh will cut red or white when his time comes 
to be put on the table. What a variety of food 
has been found in the stomach of a trout! Autopsy 
only can show this, and it has been the study of 
many, if only to show what the fish have been 
“ taking,” and may be likely to take if imitated 
by feathers, hackle, and silk, and offered to them 
in a skilful manner. 
It is not my intention here to discuss the 
various modes of fishing for trout, nor to explain 
how to kill them. It takes some years to become 
an expert fly-fisherman, and there are many 
cbarming books on the suViject. My business is 
how to produce the fish, and I shall let the 
catching of them alone in these papers. 
Next in importance as food for young trout I 
con.sider to be the young of the Limnse (water 
snail) and of many varieties I prefer Lininx 
peregra. It contains a large amount of what 
I may call “ meat,” and is of a highly nourish¬ 
ing character. These spawn generally in March 
and April, and the young snail, just freed 
from the gelatinous substance in which it is 
enveloped, is another dainty morsel for a young 
trout. Little fish of an inch long can, and 
do, pick the tiny snails off the weeds, and at 
this stage the shell of the Limnee is so soft that 
the slightest touch will break it, and it is easily 
digested by the young trout. 
The larva; of aquatic flies also forms a staple 
food for young fish, and even the commonest of 
them all, viz , the ordinary gnat {Gulex) supplies 
an immense amount of food. At a certain season 
this can be obtained by placing tubs of water in 
any convenient place, when the gnats will deposit 
their eggs in little chocolate-coloured patches, 
and these will in due time hatch, and can be 
collected in a muslin net. The perfect gnat 
congregates in the air, usually of an evening, 
and when a sudden puff of wind causes them to 
come within reach, numbers of them can be 
caught with a moist butterfly net, but the collec¬ 
tion of these is tedious, and an hour’s beating the 
air will often result in but very few flies. I cer¬ 
tainly did, one year, rear in a tank in my garden 
500 or 600 fish up to seven or eight months old 
in this way, and by collecting from a stream close 
by the larvas from the weeds. This, again, was 
tedious work, and occupied a considerable amount 
of time. 
{To be continued.) 
AN IDEAL DICTIONARY OF 
FLY-DRESSING. 
By Val Conson. 
It was an ideal of the hot wayward youth of 
my fly-dressing experience, and, in view of it, I 
expended no small labour in digesting from 
numerous authorities, and upon a uniform prin¬ 
ciple, all the dressings of all the flies (except May¬ 
flies) on which I could lay my hands. It was a 
great idea, but its vastness did not appal me, 
and, put shortly, it was as follows :— 
First. —A chapter on materials for fly-dressing. 
Second. —A chapter on instruments for fly¬ 
dressing. 
Third. —A chapter on all the modes of fly¬ 
dressing, very comprehensive and explicit. 
Fourth. —A general review and classification of 
all the insects which the angler imitates, with 
their British and scientific names. 
Fijth. —Illustrations (coloured) of Green, White, 
and Black Drakes, with a chapter with woodcuts 
descriptive of the standard patterns only, and 
explaining that there is no uniformity or system 
in the dressing of most Mayfly patterns. 
Six.. —Illustrations (coloured) of all the March 
Brown series (including August Dun) and its 
spinners, followed by the dressings : 1st, floaters ; 
2nd, winged wet flies ; and 3rd, hackle wet flies, 
taken from every author in the Bibliotheca Pisca- 
toria, and from every other source available, and 
classified according to such system as I could 
evolve out of the chaos. The dressings to be 
described on Mr. Halford’s principle — Wing, 
Body, Bib or Tag, Hackle, Whisk, Hook. The 
approximate season to be given to each fly, and 
the names of all the authors, and the date or 
approximate date of each book from which the 
dressing is taken. Where several give the same 
dressing, all names to be given, and their differ¬ 
ences (as in sizes of hooks) to be cited. The style 
of dressing deemed most appropriate to each pat¬ 
tern to be indicated by reference to a section of 
chapter three. The local names to be given. 
Standard dressings to be so distinguished. 
Seven. —Illustrations (coloured) of the Blue 
Dun series ; followed by every dressing similarly 
treated. 
Fight —The Olive Dun series, similarly illus¬ 
trated and treated. 
Nine —The Yellow Dun series, similarly illus¬ 
trated and treated. 
Ten. —The Red and other spinners of all the 
Duns of the 7th, 8th, and 9th chapters, similarly 
illustrated and treated. 
Eleven. —The Iron Blue series, through all 
shades to the Pale Watery Dun, similarly illus¬ 
trated and treated. 
Twelve .—The Jenny Spinners of all the Iron 
Blue series, similarly illustrated and treated. 
Thirteen .—The Phryganida; to be grouped like 
the Duns, and treated similarly. 
Fourteen .—The miscellaneous flies, grouped in 
their orders and treated as above. 
Fifteen .—The Beetles. 
Sixteen .—General Plies, i.e., flies which, with¬ 
out being a copy of any specific fly, bear a 
likeness to a number of flies—as Hoflawd's 
Fancy. 
Seventeen .—Fancy flies, i.e., such as, so far as 
we know, resemble nothing in the heaven above, 
or the earth heneath, or the waters on or under 
the earth. 
Eighteen .—Lists of flies for typical local 
waters. 
Lastly .—A most elaborate index. 
My idea was that nothing could have a larger 
effect in restoring our classification of our British 
Flies to something like intelligibility than such 
a work as this. It would teach anglers and 
dressers natural history. If generally successful, 
it would enable anglers to order flies by reference 
to the book, and in time bring about a truer com¬ 
prehension of the subject among all classes in¬ 
terested. It was my design to obtain from every 
tackle maker of note in England, and from other 
authorities, lists of flies suitable to their localities 
and hints as to sizes of hooks, with any dressings 
which they claimed as peculiarly their own ; and 
I intended to give the maker’s name as supplying 
the particular fly, if his claim appeared sub¬ 
stantiated. 
It was a beautiful dream, and I might have 
gone a long way towards carrying it out, but— 
always that “but”—I found, first, that there 
were myriads of patterns which no cunning of 
mine could identify with any natural fly in par¬ 
ticular ; secondly, that many of them ought to 
be shed; and thirdly, that new patterns were 
being invented and published in the sporting 
press at a pace which defied me to overtake them, 
so that my work would be obsolete in no time. 
My first experience of really practical fly¬ 
dressing cured me finally. I was set down for a 
fortnight with a very small stock of flies on a 
strange river, ten miles fz’om the nearest town, 
and more from a fly-dresser, and I had to rely on 
myself or perish piscatorially. I relied on myself. 
I caught the flies on the water, and, throwing 
book learning to the winds, imitated the flies 
with such materials as I fancied suitable, and I 
had quite enough success to cure me of rever¬ 
ence for a pattern merely because it was 
described in a book, and I have ever since been 
an advocate of iree trade and free thought in fly¬ 
dressing as opposed to tradition. Wherefore I 
make a present to whoso will of the scheme of 
my Ideal Dictionary of Ply-dressing, and may he 
make it a great success. 
STRAY CASTS FROM ATHLONE. 
By Mona. 
Our trout and salmon fishing here has com¬ 
menced. We speak first of the latter. There are 
the cynically-inclined, who sneer at it as “ sport.” 
You mount a pair of gudgeon on Archer or 
other tackle, and monotonously troll them over 
the “ fords ” of the Shannon, getting out of 
the performance as much enjoyment as you 
can. It is not indeed a wildly exciting pas¬ 
time, e.specially for the unhappy piscator—alas, 
poor F-; I knew him, Horatio!—who re¬ 
signedly watches, or at least, did watch, his two 
rods daily, from February til] April, hanging 
over the gunwales wuthout getting a single pluck. 
Man, however, has no other possession but hope. 
A fish is worth hooking, though, in these months. 
He is fresh run; smacks of the salt in fact, dies 
game, and generally turns the scale in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of 201b. Six fish to a boat is a fair 
average for the three months ; from ten to twelve 
have been got, however, and an odd grilse (pealj 
is occasionally picked up in summer with fly, 
worm, or shrimp. For the springers, though, 
your gudgeon is the only chance, it is scarcely 
necessary to say the fishing is free, as no sane 
man would give his money as well as his time 
and misery for the sport (?), but then of course 
