THE FLY-FISHER'S TEXT BOOK: OR, THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF FLY-FISHING FOR SALMON, TROUT, &c. Theoph. Here, Boy.-Holloa, my lad, come here! Don't be afraid; tho' we be Sassenachs we will not eat you. Do we look like descendants of Shenkin,-Ogre-like? Boy. Yes, sure, sir. Theoph. There, Herbert, I thought as much! Put any question, or make any observation to the lower order of Welsh folk, and their first words are, sure as fate--" Yes, sure." This lad, I dare vouch, understood not the half of the import of my question to him. But come, will you run with this bit of paper to the Eagles Inn, at Llanrwst, and bring back to us what they give you? You'll find us under the sycamore trees near the wall-stream? Do you understand? Boy. Yes, sure. Herb. "Yes, sure," again. Theophilus, trust him not. You had better write to the inn people full directions for them to explain to the boy. But what are you up to? Theoph. There, my lad; run with that note, to the Eagles, and wait for an answer, and take these fish with you, and dont eat any part of your burthen, to or fro. Buy. "Yes, sure." (Exit.) Theoph. Never mind their provincialisms. They are right honest withal. What I've done is to prevent your animal strength giving way for want of sustenance, to recompense the loss sustained by the awful state of excitement you've been in during your late success, loss, and recapture. I've sent for a bottle or two of Guinness's best-we shall find some one up yonder to help us no doubt and such other trifles in the way of eatables as will serve for a luncheon. The larger fish I sent to be keppered, and the smaller to our larder. Herb. Most provident provider! As poor Seymour's caricature has it, "You knows how to enjoy a fishing." You named to the sycamore trees; Do you remember that the conversation of the "blissful Isaac and his companion under the sycamore tree, turned upon making NO. CXIII.-VOL. XIX. X artificial flies? Imitating so good an example, just, while the youth is gone, tell me how those flies with which we have been so successful this morning in hooking or raising fish, were made. Theoph. To tell you how they were made would be a story too long for the present occasion. I shall give you full instructions upon the subject one of these days-diverging a little, perhaps not a little, from the via trita of fishing books. But I can soon acquaint you with the materials they were composed, if that will interest you. Herb. Be assured it must interest me, because it seems not only useful, but as I imagine, absolutely necessary, I should remember the exact flies that are fortunate in particular states of the water and weather. For, I presume, I might always use similar ones when the sun shines bright, though occasionally screened by a passing cloud, the wind blowing, and the water is clear and low, as it has been during the time we have been at it this morning; so pray proceed. Theoph. I should be too bold if I were to assert positively that you are wrong, and perhaps as far from truth, did I at once, and without qualification say you are right. I, for my part, cannot cede that salmon affect or eschew one colour rather than another. In the first place, we don't know what they take our flies for; either for what kind of insect or living thing, or whether as food at all. We know of no insect or fish, to which our flies bear resemblance, and in fact they are, for the most part, the mere offspring of our own imaginations, without the least idea of following any living original. Nor have we any evidence that salmon take food of any kind when in the river; the evidences which we have tending in fact the other way, namely, to show that they do not eat. I think I have before intimated to you, that out of the hundreds which have been opened and investigated, for the purpose of ascer taining the fact, immediately they have left the river, not the smallest vestige of anything like food has been found within any part of their intestines. Mind you, I do not say that this is proof conclusive; because some persons have supposed that immediately on being hooked or entangled in the net, salmon void whatever is in their stomachs; which one can easily understand to be possible with regard to food swallowed immediately before they were caught, or of food quite digested. But I am not sufficiently acquainted with the subject to take it for granted that any animal has the power of discharging the entire contents of its stomach and intestines, whether it be newly received therein, or is half or entirely digested. From analogy to other fish, we may fairly say this is not the way to account for this curious phenomena; because we find food in all stages, in the stomachs of trout, pike, and the like. Herb. But do not salmon take worms, and even a spinning bait in rivers: I learn that those are the great means resorted to in Norway. If so, there is surely evidence that they feed. Theoph. I grant you, that as regards their taking worms, it is a puzzler. So I believe, ( mark you I don't believe all I hear), they have been seen to take natural flies on this river, and have been taken. by dibbing with the natural fly. But a spinning bait offers the extra temptation of something glittering, and having a motion communicated by our hands and by no means natural to a living fish; and I never heard of their taking a live bait, as jack, perch, and such like will. Upon the whole, therefore, I fear we must place this also among the many subjects connected with the natural history of fish, as to which we are, I regret to say, entirely in the dark at present. Still, however, from all we have to base any opinion upon, I feel quite justified in saying salmon do not, and cannot take our flies from any resemblance they bear in shape or colour to living or natural prey, and I am, therefore, not prepared to say that we have any reason to employ particular feathers, or other material in a fly on account of their colours. I cannot, at present, admit it as proved, that colour has anything to do with the "takingness" of a fly. It may be, and is, indeed, that a dark or light fly may be preferable according to the state of the water or sky, but which ever circle of the rainbow the shade partakes of, I do not believe to be so material. I do not really think that a salmon looking upwards from his depth below, can distinguish more than that an opaque object is passing by him, and provided he is inclined to stir, my idea is, he will do so, whether the suit be "Or red, or blue, or green, or yellow." Herb. What then, is it? Do not you prefer one kind and colour of fly before others? What is your secret charm? Theoph. Aye, "there's the rub." I started this subject by acknowledging our ignorance of the matter. I have found three or four flies pre-eminently successful, and in consequence I persevere more with them than with others. It is my own tool and so I work better with it than with another man's. You will find on this, and every other river, that no two men use the same flies; each "swears" by his own, and each is alike successful. Now, for the key to my mysterious secret. With trout you must be exact (more or less) as to colour; but in making salmon-flies everything, in my opinion, depends on the mode in which the materials are worked up; the appearance of life which, from the mode in which the wings in particular are put on, is given in the In a future chapter I purpose giving directions for fly-making, and shall not then lose sight of these observations.-T. S. -- motion we communicate by the play of the rod. That, I think, is the whole secret of salmon-fly making. But at the same time I am not so over confident of its correctness that I would cease to give . preference to one coloured fly over another, and, therefore, I will willingly describe a few flies which I consider killers for such weather and water as the present, namely, bright sun, with flying, skreening, clouds, rippling breeze, and low and bright water. But let me first intimate to you that on pools much deeper than we have fished this morning, and on rapids, you dress them on larger hooks; and on streams, my definition of which you know,* on smaller hooks. Well, then, the first fly I had on, and which killed the fish, was,-wait, here it is, the hook is about fifteen sixteenths of an inch long from shank end to bend. This fly I made from Ronald's beautiful work, the" Fly fisher's Entomology, as the stone-fly for trout. Its tail is composed of two fibres of a long grouse hackle. The body is a mixture of bright yellow mohair (which, with all other things, I shall some day tell you how to dye), and a considerably predominating portion of the fur from a hare's ear; but there is a greater proportion of the mohair at the tail, which gives it this yellow appearance in that part. Over this, representing the joints in the fly's body, is wound, spirally, palish yellow floss silk. The hackle for the legs is dyed a dark olive, and the wings are made of about fifty fibres from a light mottled feather, off the hen pheasant's wing. In addition to this the fly happened to have its head, projecting forwards, two whisks of sable fur. But I do not consider they had any effect towards the fascination of our friend Salmo. I may as well tell you now, once for always, as I shall have frequent occasion to mention" the wing-feathers" of a bird, that unless I specify any others, you are to understand that, taking off and exclusive of five or six of the longest, which are termed pinion feathers, and in fact form the point of the wing, I refer to eight or nine next largest in size; and of them we use the fibres on the concave side of the stem corresponding to those which, as a matter of course, you would strip off from a goose quill preparatory to making a pen. They are much finer and rather longer than those on the other or convex side, and are, therefore, preferred. Here is a fly of a similar pattern to that which so raised your extacies, and with which you might have done execution before breakfast. It is of a more elaborate description than the preceding one, a regular salmon fly; and, by-the-bye, it is a great favourite here, so remember it well. The hook was, perhaps, a sixteenth of an nch less than the preceding, namely, fourteen-sixteenths long. Below * January, 1840, p. 11. the tail is thin silver thread or wire, then comes a golden pheasant's top-knot for tail; above that, three or four turns of black ostrich hurl. The body, of crimson mohair left rough, ribbed over with silver thread, It is sometimes made of crimson floss silk, with a claret hackle over it. The wings are of equal parts, but not many fibres, of the dark brown speckled feather off a mallard's back, and the light brown speckled feather of the shovel duck, from the side of the body, under and below the wing; and mixed with these, and left rather longer are six fibres from the bright yellowish green parraket's wing. Then over the wings comes a dark mottled feather from about the shoulder of the grouse's wing, which we call a grouse hackle, because generally worked up (and as you see this is) as cock's hackles are, namely, by being wound or hackled round the shank of the hook. Three or four turns of a black ostrich hurl for the head, completes the fly. The third, and which I so regret to have lost, because the fish bore it company, affords a good lesson of the advantages of industry and foresight; which, had I not adopted in this instance, would have caused me to reverse the reason for my regrets and to have petitioned the Emperor of the Salmon in this river for the restoration of the fly, without a care about the punishment of the fish that took it; I would then willingly have compounded the felony, in defiance of the laws and statutes of this realm in that case made and provided, as those skilful fishers of men, lawyers, would have it. But having completed half the circle of digression, let me tell you that it is a good fly, a favourite fly, and a successful fly, made after the pattern of one rather prized by "the greatest sculptor in Europe," who took salmon with it below this town in just such water as there is at present when no one else could stir a fin. But you saw its powers though my unskilfulness counteracted them. Very fortunately just before starting off to meet you yesterday afternoon I made this, its fac-simile, in order not to lose so valuable a pattern. Now having completed the "aforesaid" circle, let me tell you, that after the four turns of silver thread under and below it the tail is composed of three fibres of the yellow spreading back feather of the golden pheasant; the body is of light red brown mohair, left rough with silver thread wound up it; and over this all the way comes a Marlow buzz hackle; that is a red hackle with a black stripe up the stem and the fibres tipped with black. The wings are, first a mixture of plain dark speckled guinea fowl's back feather, with an equal quantity of the same feather dyed Maroon; over these, and extending rather beyond them comes about the same proportion of dark peckled mallard, such as I have just mentioned; for horns |