Still, no good angler will despise the minute North-country
flies. In Yorkshire they are said to kill the large chalk trout of
Driffield as well as the small limestone and grit fish of Craven; if
so, the gentlemen of the Driffield Club, who are said to think
nothing of killing three-pound fish on midge flies and cobweb tackle,
must be (as canny Yorkshiremen are likely enough to be) the best
anglers in England.
In one spot only in Yorkshire, as far as I know, do our large chalk
flies kill: namely, in the lofty limestone tarn of Malham. There
palmers, caperers, and rough black flies, of the largest Thames and
Kennet sizes, seem the only attractive baits: and for this reason,
that they are the flies of the place. The cinnamon Phryganea comes
up abundantly from among the stones; and the large peat moss to the
west of the tarn abounds, as usual, in house-flies and bluebottles,
and in the caterpillars of the fox and oak-egger moths: another
proof that the most attractive flies are imitations of the real
insects. On the other hand, there are said to be times when midges,
and nothing else, will rise fish on some chalk streams.
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