But failing them, you may
do well with a drake which is ribbed through the whole length with
red hackle over a straw-coloured body. A North-countryman would
laugh at it, and ask us how we fancy that fish will mistake for that
delicate waxy fly a heavy rough palmer, made heavier and rougher by
two thick tufts of yellow mallard wing: but if he will fish
therewith, he will catch trout; and mighty ones they will be. I have
found, again and again, this drake, in which the hackle is ribbed all
down the body, beat a bare-bodied one in the ratio of three fish to
one. The reason is difficult to guess. Perhaps the shining
transparent hackle gives the fly more of the waxy look of the natural
insect; or perhaps the 'buzzly' look of the fly causes the fish to
mistake it for one half emerged from its pupa case, fluttering,
entangled, and helpless. But whatever be the cause, I am sure of the
fact. Now--silence and sport for the next three hours.
* * * * *
There! All things must end. It is so dark that I have been fishing
for the last five minutes without any end fly; and we have lost our
two last fish simply by not being able to guide them into the net.
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