Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/47

Rh fish that is rising, the best way is to cast a little above, and to allow the flies, with as little of the line as possible, to eome over or past him. Some anglers fish up stream and some down. In fishing down stream the angler exposes himself more to the fish, and is more apt to miss his fish when they do rise ; and if his tackle is fine and the fish heavy, having the weight of the stream against him is also more apt to break it than when fishing up ; perhaps the best method is to fish diagonally up and across the stream. The angler pursues one of two systems. He either waits till he sees fish rise and fishes over them, wasting no time on intermediate water when he sees no rises ; or he fishes the water out thoroughly, searching every hollow, bank, weed, and stone, that may hide a trout. In burn fishing for small trout the latter method is generally the one adopted. In larger rivers, where the fish are heavy and few, the former is more often preferred. When a good fish is hooked it will often resist strongly, and rush violently about, seeking to hide itself under weeds and roots, which are dangerous to the tackle. The angler must guide the fish as well as he can until it is tired, letting out line from the reel when resistance becomes too severe a strain on the tackle, and winding it in again when opportunity serves, but always keeping a tight line on the fish, as a slack line frequently loses it. When tired the fish should be towed gently to a favourable bank, and the landing-net quietly slipped under him. There must be no dashing or hasty movement with the net, lest the fish be frightened and make another effort to escape, as fish frequently do, and successfully, as it is a dangerous moment in the struggle. In fishing with a double-handed rod the rod is longer and the line a little heavier; in other- respects there is no difference. The rod will vary from 13 to 15 feet for trouting. The left hand grasps it below the reel, and the right hand above ; though, if the angler desires a change, or the necessities of the stream or wind require it, the hands can be reversed. The double-handed rod has several advantages over the single, having more power with big fish, and keeping the line and flies higher above obstructions. The question of why fish take bunches of feathers tied on hooks, and what they mistake them for, has often been asked ; and it is now pretty generally allowed that they take them for flies in the majority of instances, though in others they may mistake them for water-beetles, larvae, or spiders, of which latter insect there are several that inhabit the water. Now, there are two classes of disputants on this matter : one which holds altogether to the fly theory, and therefore strives to imitate each fly that comes out closely; the other, which inclines more to the general insect theory, and merely gives a few flies of different colours, not caring to imitate anything in particular. Pro bably the best fishermen recognise both theories, but bind themselves exclusively to neither. But before entering upon the selection of flies it may be well to point out the difference in the practice of the north and south. We may, perhaps, take the late Mr Stewart as the exponent of the north ; and, perhaps, Mr Francis Francis may be held as the latest exponent of the south. Mr Stewart gives a short list of a bare half-dozen of insects, three of which he calls spiders black, red, and dun and which are what are known in the south as " hackle " flies ; that is, flies dressed with only a body and hackle. The hackle is wound on round the hook, over the body, and is supposed to represent the legs of the fly, there being no wings. Mr Stewart also has three flies of three general colours, yellow, brown, and dark bodies ; but as these may be varied with all sorts of wings and legs, the last may embrace in reality any number of flies which the taste of the angler may suggest. Mr Stewart s standards, however, are dressed thus : (1.) A woodcock wing, with a single turn of a red hackle or landrail feather, dressed with yellow silk freely exposed on the body. For fishing in dark-coloured waters the fly may be dressed with scarlet thread. (2.) A hare- lug body, with corn-bunting or chaffinch wing. A wood cock wing may also be put on the same body, but should be made of the small light feathers taken from the inside of the wing. (3.) The same wing as the last, with a single turn of a soft black hen-hackle, or a small feather taken from the shoulder of a starling, dressed with dark-coloured silk. These, as Mr Stewart says, can be varied to any extent ; but he pins his faith on those mentioned and the spiders : the black spider being a small dark starling feather wound over a brown silk body ; the red one, the small feather outside the wing of the landrail, wound on over a yellow silk body; and the dun spider, the small soft ash-coloured feather from outside the dottrel s wing, with hardly any body but the tying of the hook. This is Mr Stewart s repertoire it is not overburdensome; but in the south Mr Francis says that fish are much less numerous, and are larger and more critical, their feeding-time being much longer and food being more plentiful than in the north, and their taste, therefore, has to be more carefully considered; he therefore gives a list of flies for each month. Space does not permit us to name the whole of them, but we can enumerate a few of the best of them. The duns run through the whole year, and are therefore with the angler the piece de resistance. These comprise varieties of the blue and yellow dun, and should be varied from the darkest slate-blue to the lightest shade yellow, from almost golden yellow up to the lightest fawn, almost a white, and these, slightly combined, go also to an olive. The earlier duns are the blue dun, which comes in in March, and is one of the best spring flies. It is in the water more or less throughout the season. Then there is the small dark iron-blue dun, which appears in April or May, with wings almost as dark as the body ; and the bright yellow dun, with greenish-yellow body and pale slate-coloured wings. If these three be taken as the darkest of their class, and varieties, each of a shade or two lighter in colour, be made, they will take in the whole of this important class of flies. These duns are all imperfect insects, and have another change to go through before they are complete and able to propagate, and when they have completed this they usually die. The fly casts its skin and becomes a perfect insect, brighter in colour and more brisk in its motions. In this. form they are called by the angler " spinners." Thus the blue dun becomes the red spinner, the yellow dun the brown spinner, the iron-blue dun the jenny spinner, and so on. All these flies belong, with several others, to the class or order Neuroptera, or nerve-winged flies flies with clear gaudy wings, intersected with a network of veined markings. They form the most important order for the angler; but there is another order, the Trichoptera, or hairy-winged flies, which is scarcely less important, and which includes a very large number of flies on which fish habitually feed. These flies have soft feathery folding wings, which lie close on the back. They differ from the former order in having one less change to go through, for when they emerge from the pupa state and become flies, they are complete, and have no further change to go through. There are, besides these, which are flies born from water, other orders of land flies, imitations of which are used by anglers, as the cow-dung, hawthorn, and oak flies, the house-fly, &c., but they are comparatively insignificant,