Bah! I am becoming poetical; let us think how to tie an alder-fly.
The common tie is good enough. A brown mallard, or dark hen-pheasant
tail for wing, a black hackle for legs, and the necessary peacock-
herl body. A better still is that of Jones Jones Beddgelert, the
famous fishing clerk of Snowdonia, who makes the wing of dappled
peacock-hen, and puts the black hackle on before the wings, in order
to give the peculiar hunch-backed shape of the natural fly. Many a
good fish has this tie killed. But the best pattern of all is tied
from the mottled wing-feather of an Indian bustard; generally used,
when it can be obtained, only for salmon flies. The brown and fawn
check pattern of this feather seems to be peculiarly tempting to
trout, especially to the large trout of Thames; and in every river
where I have tried the alder, I have found the bustard wing facile
princeps among all patterns of the fly.
Of palmers (the hairy caterpillars) are many sorts. Ephemera gives
by far the best list yet published. Ronalds has also three good
ones, but whether they are really taken by trout instead of the
particular natural insects which he mentions, is not very certain.
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