CHAPTER II.
ARTIFICIAL FLIES.
Volumes have been written on this subject, teaching the manner of making hundreds of different artificial flies, the materials and paraphernalia requisite for the finished fly-maker, the particular flies proper for various rivers, andfor each month of the fishing season, &c., &c. All this, I consider, is perfectly useless, and I am decidedly of opinion, that when trout are disposed to take the fly, it matters not what fly is used, as to shape or colour, provided it be of the propersize. When trout are not disposed to take the fly, you may try all the flies in your book, without success. I have, by way of experiment, fished during an entire season with the coachman and governor only, and have been uniformly successful with those two flies, even during the May fly season, when the water has been covered with May flies, and the fish taking them greedily. The May fly is doubtless a great favourite with trout, and I would not recommend fishing with any other fly during the May fly season, although trout will take them before, as well as after the season. These flies make their appearance about the end of May, and disappear about the end of June.
Experience has taught me the fallacy of the common notion, that trout are finished entomologists, and will reject all flies not actually on the water, and even all flies in imitation of those actually on the water, unless the shape and size be exact, and the colour correct to a shade! The fact is, that when in the humour to take the fly, trout will take freely all sorts of insects that come in their way, from the May bug and grasshopper to the black gnat, and when feeding on insects they are not nice as to the kind, shape or colour of the insect presented to them. At the commencement of my piscatory career I was as fastidious as I imagined the fish to be, and I so continued until experience convinced me of my error.
I once met with a clergyman fishing, who cast his fly clumsily. He kept pretty well out of sight of the fish, but when his fly reached the water a large portion of the line accompanied it, making a splash, and frightening away the fish. He had a book full of all sorts of well-madeflies, which he constantly changed, but got no rises. A labouring countryman was following him at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, fishing with clumsy tackle, with which, by the skilful casting of his fly, he repeatedly took good-sized fish, to the great astonishment of the clergyman, who attributed his own want of success, not to his want of skill, but to his not using the right fly. “Will you permit me,” said he to the countryman, “to look at your fly?”—“By all means,” said he. “I am just about to put on another;” and, taking out his knife, he cut off a small piece of his black velveteen jacket, and stuck it on his hook, thus making what he called a black hackle! With that rude imitation he had caught all his fish; thus demonstrating that skill in the use of the artificial fly, however rudely made, will succeed, where the best imitations, clumsily used, will fail.
Although, by way of experiment, I have fished, during an entire season, with coachman and governor only, I would by no means recommend the fly-fisher to restrict himself to those flies; but I am quite sure that the flies comprised in the following list will be found amply sufficient for the whole fishing season, and for all countries and all rivers:—
Fill your book with a sufficient quantity of these flies only, well made, half large and half small, and you will have as good a chance of success as a fly-fisher may reasonably expect.
The coachman is made with large peacock body, and white wings, and derives its name from the fact of its having been invented and first brought into notice by aCoachman, a celebrated fly-fisher. It is a very useful fly, and is taken by trout readily, in all waters, and in every part of the season, although not made to resemble any natural fly. It is preferable I think to the white moth for evening fishing.
Choose your May flies with wings made large and standing up, full bodies and long tails; and use no flies that are not made on Limerick hooks, which double your chance of hooking fish.
In all fly-fishing matches with which I am acquainted, and in some of which I have been myself engaged, each competitor has fished with a different kind of fly, and neither with a fly resembling that actually on the water. The success of each has been, generally, nearly equal, the winner gaining the match by a very few; attributable (as I believe), not to the fly he used, but to his superior skill, or to fortuitous circumstances, altogether independent of the particular fly he fished with.
I have dwelt upon this subject because I wish to guard the tyro against the too common failing of being fidgety as to his flies, and changing them repeatedly, fancying (for it is fancy only) that he does not get rises because he is not using the right fly. Fish with any of the flies I have mentioned—small, with fine gut, when the weather is bright and the water clear, with little wind—and larger, with stouter gut, when the weather is cloudy, windy, or rainy, and the water discoloured—and you may rest assured you will take as many fish as any competitor of only equal skill, with a book full of all sorts of flies, of all shapes and colours; and even with flies, admirably made by himself at the river-side, in imitation of the fly actually on the water.
I cannot, I think, better conclude my observations on artificial flies, or better satisfy the tyro of their truth, than by assuring him of the fact that some of the most successfulfirst-rate fly-fishers,old hands, never, throughout the season, use any other flies than the red, brown, and black hackles, with and without wings, and the black gnat. I therefore hope that my list of flies will be considered amply sufficient, as I am quite sureexperience will prove it to be.