894 
F ORES T AND STREAM 
green drake and brown drake, of which No. i 
and No. 2, picture the same species in my nature 
flies at the head of this article. 
I painted the English green drake, known as 
May fly, from a living specimen while fishing 
the River Test, three seasons ago; also a brown 
drake, known as March brown, on the River 
Dove, for the purpose of testing, and found a 
great difference between the American and Brit¬ 
ish insects mentioned. Unfortunately Halford’s 
artificial representations are inferior in every 
respect to the beautiful specimens in Ronald’s 
book, due, I think to very poor artistic work; 
though hand colored, they are particularly bad 
and coarse insect representations. Aside from 
that, many of the artificials stated to be imita¬ 
tions of natural insects are unlike in form and 
color. 
The superb entomological engravings I can tell 
as the work of French artists, and possibly may 
be reproduced from a French book on entomol¬ 
ogy. I mention this because a small circle of 
American followers of the great British dry fly 
prophet may have been led astray into wrong 
paths, by a study of British insects, that differ 
to a wide degree from American insects, and 
of course British artificial flies. 
Every prophet is in time succeeded by another, 
just as now, a new school with new ideas direct¬ 
ly opposite has arisen in England to follow a 
path from “rigid theory” back to nature—in other 
words, to entice trout by an artificial lure so na¬ 
tural that it does not detect such from its usual 
food. Yet all the same I own to a deep debt 
of gratitude to Mr. Halford’s intimate knowledge 
and far reaching studies as laid down in his va¬ 
rious books, all of which I have carefully con¬ 
sulted for many years with great profit. 
The drake family, large or small in size, dark 
or light in color, have one uniform appearance, 
with wings and tails cocked high, and the wings 
are always closed together when in repose at 
the surface. All the drakes, big or little, always 
float at the surface exactly alike, unless dead, 
when they float with wings lying flat on the 
surface, and such an attitude accounts for the 
dry fly anglers uncocked fly being sometimes 
taken by trout. 
The dun family, whose wings lie flat over and 
sloping down below the body are not usually 
floaters. Some can and do alight on the sur¬ 
face repeatedly, rising and dropping without dif¬ 
ficulty. The greater part, however, when once 
they happen to get wet, flutter awhile and drown, 
mostly to be taken under by the action of the 
water’s flow when they are consumed by the 
fish. This certainly accounts for the reason why 
a cast of wet flies so often lure trout to take 
them. 
Another important element in fish diet is the 
vast number of undeveloped wingless flies con¬ 
stantly wiggling their way up to the surface to 
soon fly as perfect insects, if not consumed by 
fish. 
The flies shown at the head of this chapter 
are a selection of the best flies to be used during 
the month of May. The original insect pictures 
from which they have been copied will be printed 
in colors in my “Trout Stream Insect” book, to 
be published by Frederick A. Stokes Company, 
New York. 
The names of these flies are No. 1 Green 
drake, No. 2 Brown drake, No. 4 Mottled drake, 
No. 8 Gray drake. These four have all upright 
wings, cocked tails having two or more tail wisks. 
All are drakes that habitually float on the sur¬ 
face, and should be fished as floating flies, with 
wings cocked upright on the water, if possible. 
No. 5, Cinnamon; No. 6, Sandy; No. 10, Yel¬ 
low Sally; No. 11, Flathead; No. 12, Alder, are 
all duns with wings flat and sloping down over 
rather fat bodies. The wisks are at the head 
instead of tail on Nos. 6, 11, and 12. On Nos. 5 
and 10 there are wisks on both head and tail. 
Those duns having wisks on head and tail can 
float; those duns with no tail wisks cannot float 
and should be fished wet. The other duns can 
be fished either way, wet or dry. The same 
rule does not apply to other monthly list of flies, 
as they vary, sometimes just the opposite. 
No. 17, the golden spinner, with airy wings 
and a profusion of hackle, is one of a few spin¬ 
ners that readily flat, and is an excellent fly for 
afternoons and evenings. 
After the foregoing undeniable truths concern¬ 
ing the most alluring fly, I can modestly claim 
the many statements made by various writers 
that certain flies they mentioned are the best 
killers of trout are not only misleading, but with¬ 
out sound basis. When trout are not visibly 
feeding, they are taking the undeveloped fly in 
midwater or creepers at the bottom. They are 
never gorged, or what is called “off-feed.” True 
it is, they are seen, at times, lying still—but the 
reason for that is, no food is within their vision. 
Let a minnow or fly cross their path—they go 
for it quick! 
The case is different with bass, whose erratic 
refusal of any and all kinds of bait or lures is 
well-known to be frequent, and no expert has 
been able to explain why. This I hope by care¬ 
ful study to find a reason for later on. The suc¬ 
cessful tests so far made with my “Nature Flies,” 
have not been tried on miserable liver-fed, cap¬ 
tive trout in private preserves, for which I have 
many opportunities, that are no more active than 
hogs in a pen; but upon wild, voracious river 
(Continued on page 921.) 
