The delicate
black hackle which Mr. Stewart praises so highly (and which should
always be tied on a square sneck-bend hook) will kill in June and
July; and on the Itchen, at Winchester, hardly any flies but small
ones are used after the green drake is off. But there is one sad
objection against these said midges--what becomes of your fish when
hooked on one in a stream full of weeds (as all chalk streams are
after June), save
'One struggle more, and I am free
From pangs which rend my heart in twain'?
Winchester fishers have confessed to me that they lose three good
fish out of every four in such cases; and as it seems pretty clear
that chalk fish approve of no medium between very large flies and
very small ones, I advise the young angler, whose temper is not yet
schooled into perfect resignation, to spare his own feelings by
fishing with a single large fly--say the governor in the forenoon,
the caperer in the evening, regardless of the clearness of the water.
I have seen flies large enough for April, raise fish excellently in
Test and other clear streams in July and August; and, what is more,
drag them up out of the weeds and into the landing-net, where midges
would have lost them in the first scuffle.
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