ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University THE GIFT OF WILLARD A. KIGGINS, JR. in memory of his father Trout fishing. 3 1924 003 426 248 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003426248 TROUT FISHING BY THE SAME AUTHOR HOW TO FISH CONTAINING 8 TULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND iS SMALLER ENGRAVINGS IN THE TEXT. LARGE CROWN 8vO. CLOTH. SALMON FISHING WITH A FACSIMILE IN COLOURS OF A MODEL SET OF FLIES FOR SCOTLAND, IRELAND, ENGLAND AND WALES, AND lO ILLUSTRA- TIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS. LARGE CROWN 8V0. CLOTH, AN ANGLER'S SEASON CONTAINING 12 PAGES OF ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS. LARGE CROWN 8vO. CLOTH, A. And C. BLACK, LTD., SOHO SqUARE, LONDON, W.I, AGENTS America . The Macmillan Company 64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, New York Australasia , . The Oxford University Press 205 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Canada . , The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd. St. Martin's House, 70 Bond Street, Toronto India , , . , Macmillan & Company, Ltd. Macmillan Building, Bombay 309 Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta TROUT AND A SALMON. From the Picture by H, L. Rolfe. TKOUT FISHING BY W. EARL HODGSON WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY H. L. ROLFE AND A FACSIMILE IN COLOURS OF A MODEL BOOK OF FLIES, FOR STREAM AND LAKE, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE MONTHS IN WHICH THE LURES ARE APPROPRIATE THIRD EDITION A. & C. BLACK, LTD. 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.l. 1920 FvhUshed March 1, 1904. Seprinted, with emeridationB cmd a^LclAUons, May 1904. Third Edition printed April 1908. Beprvated Ja/tmanj 1920. THIS ESSAY IN THE STUDY OP NATURAI. PHENOMENA WRITTEN IN SUMMER WAS BY PERMISSION INSCRIBED TO THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY, K.G. WITH PLEASANT REMEMBRANCE AND PROFOUND RESPECI IT IS NOW IN COMPLIANCE WITH A SAD BUT GRACIOUS SUOOESTIOH DEDICATED TO HIS MEMORY Winter, 1903. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION In this edition there is a new frontis- piece. I myself was well pleased with Rolfe's pictv/re which adorns the earlier issues ; hut Mr. Adam, Black thought that our version had not done justice to the original. He believed that a better repro- duction waspossible, and ashed me whether Mr. Barratt would lend the original again. Mr. Barratt said " Certainly," and had the picture brought to London from Kent ; but he was willing to do more than the Publisher wished. Since " Trout Fishing " made its earlier appearances, he had found a Rolfe picture which he deemed even better for our pwrpose than the other; and he showed it to Mr. Black, who told me, Tii viii TROUT FISHING by letter, that it was "splendid." Being far from Town, I myself have not yet seen it; hut Mr. Barratt's suggestion and Mr. Black's approval are sufficient. It is with " " sorrow that I part from Brown Trout ; hut, Mr. Barratt being an authority on the graphic a/rts, it would be absurd, besides being ungrateful, to hesitate about making the change. There is, I a/m told, a salmon in the new picture. As there is one in the book, text and frontispiece vnll be in accord. After writing this book I wrote another on the samie subject, entitled " How to Fish." In the later volume there is presented a theory that aquatic flies, on which trout feed, must be much less irregula/r in the times of their coming on or into the water than anglers generally assume. Therefore, on the Publisher intimating that a new edition of this volume should be prepared, I thought that certain passages would hoAie to be rewritten. On reflection, I have done no more them modify a few phrases. That is because I a/m not quite sure about PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION ix the new theory. Most of the critics regard it with doubt. Should a second edition of " How to Fish " be needed, the problem will have to be investigated further. Mean- while, it seems right to mention that the understanding about fiies provisionally presented in this book is more generally accepted than the theory which the other endeavours to corrvmend. Since compiling The Book of Flies I have adopted, at the suggestion of Mr. William Hardy, new dressings in a few cases ; also, in the June, July, and August chapters of the Calendar, I add the " spiders " used by Mr. W. G. Stewart in these months, as dressed by Mr. Malloch, who had the patterns from Mr. Stewart. The strcmge snow-shower which begins, approximately, on page 227, is the subject of a problem still unsolved. The tentative ideas which it raised in my own mind are stated in the text. On page 27 S a very eminent thinker com/ments on them, and in the pages immediately following I endeavour to discuss the comment. Just ; X TROUT FISHING after the second edition was published my distinguished friend wrote again. What he said was impressive. Being unable to answer convincingly, I sought the help of Mr. Arthur Balfour, to whose specula- tions on the same subject reference is Tnade in the letter. Mr. Balfour was m/uch interested, and found that Professor Case, having before him, it seemed, only a sum/marised report of the address at Cam- bridge, had not caught his meaning exactly but he was too much engaged in political affairs to be able, at the time, to write on the scientific -philosophical problem as re-presented in this booh. What was to be done? If I did not publish the letter of my eminent friend, it might seem that the problem was to be rega/rded as settled by what had been said in the Note to the Second Edition; and that is not the case. Therefore the letter is now published. It will be found in the Note to this Edition, beginning on p. 285. PEEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION The Booh of Flies, inset at the beginning of this volume, is designed for the conveni- ence of the many anglers who, amid the pressure of practical affairs, naturally find it difficult to remember the rela- tions of the lures to the months of the season. In arranging the flies for strea/ms I have had the invaluable assistance of Mr. William Senior, who revised, and in some cases added to, the lists which I had drawn up. What are knovm as "local flies," lures in imitation of insects found only on certain rivers, are not included. Still, it is believed that as regards the flies for running waters the lists a/re compre- hensive. All possible care has been taken xii TROUT FISHING to ensure that the images are exactly life-size. The selection and arrangement of the lake flies has been much m,ore difficult. The few authorities to whom I submitted my own distributions were sceptical as to the possibility of stating exactly what lake fl/ies were appropriate to any particular month. For example, Mr. Robert Ander- son, Edinburgh, who has been fishing, and supplying flies to other fishermen, for over forty yea/rs, thought that they could be separated only into those which might " be called " sum/tner flies and those which could be used all through the season. This opinion commianded respect ; yet there were strong reasons for believing that the very inexact state of the science of lake-fish- ing was no more than a reflection of the stra/ngdy casual manner in which angling is practised on the lakes. These reasons were derived from observation and &cperi- ence. The insects that flutter about the lakes appear just as regularly, in their seasons, as the insects which haunt the streams; ; PREFACE xiii and they are no less distinct in their varieties. It was natural to assume, therefore, that the Jlies which would be fitting lures at one time would not be fitting at others; and that for the other times there were appropriate flies, if only one could find them. The a/rrangemsnt set forth in The Book of Flies is the result of observations and experiments which have at least been constant and The problem of the lake fiies, however, was not completely solved when the dis- tribution into months had been settled. In what sizes were the lures to be presented ? Naturalists admit that the standard sizes are as a rule la/rger than the real insects yet, in spite of this, practically all anglers use flies of the standa/rd patterns. This habit is not in accord unth the assumption set forth in the pages that are to follow, which is that Nature is the true guide. Nevertheless, apart from the cases of the Green Drake and the Stonefly, which are life-size, the standards are adopted in The xiv TROUT FISHING Book of Flies. After much consideration, there were three reasons for this course. In the first place, however strong might he one's own opinion on the subject of lake flies, which has not until now, I be- lieve, been treated systematically, it seemed right to defer to general usage to the extent, at least, of stating what the usage was. In the second place, experience renders it impossible to deny that somer- times the standa/rd sizes are to be considered right, or, at any rate, not wrong. When the wind is high, all the aspects of a lake, even its length and breadth, seem to be on a larger scale, and to grow with the growth of the waves; the very trout increase in voracity and in damng then, and come at the standard flies so well that it is not easy to consider the standards a mistake.