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, and for 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 proper _size_. 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-made flies, 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:—
The March Brown. The Red Hackle.
The Governor. The Black Hackle.
The Coachman. The Blue Dun.
The Green Drake } May The Alder Fly.
The Grey Drake } Flies. The Black Gnat.
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 a Coachman, 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 successful first-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 sure _experience will prove it to be_.