I see no reason to alter the list given in the first edition, indeed, subsequent experience has tended to confirm my opinion expressed therein.
Many old anglers say it is of no use in the May-fly season to try any other fly. I generally use a May-fly as stretcher, and a small Soldier-palmer as drop, and out of seventeen-and-a-half brace of trout caught last Whitsuntide in two half-days, one-third of them were caught on the Palmer. Others say it is useless to try a May-fly, except when the natural fly is out; but this is also subject to modification.
There have been two or three well-authenticated cases reported in the sporting journals lately, of fish having been killed some weeks before and after the season on _Ephemera vulgata_. Indeed, there has been seen in Ireland this autumn a _second_ very strong rise of May-fly.
In the first edition I speak of the Grey-drake thus:--"This is said to be a metamorphosis of the green drake, or female, changing to a male." The passage should have read thus:--"This is _said by some writers_ to be," &c.
I had not the slightest intention of giving that as a fact, or as my own opinion, knowing otherwise.
Flies tied on eyed hooks with cocked or upright wings, in imitation of the natural fly when floating down a stream, are coming into use more and more, and apparently will supersede those tied on gut, and with flat wings.
A century ago it was not possible to get forecasts of the weather from the daily papers, and the death of Admiral Fitzroy in middle life, and in the midst of his scientific discoveries, was a great blow to the advancement of this branch of science. But with greater facilities for conveying intelligence round the whole globe, it could not but happen that more accurate information of air currents should be sent forward to the countries likely to be affected by them.
The following is from the "Art of Angling," published in 1810:--"It is the best fishing in a river somewhat disturbed by rain, or on a cloudy day when the waters are moved with a gentle breeze; the south and west winds are the best, and if the wind blows high, yet not so but that you may conveniently guide your tackle, then fishes will rise in the still deeps; but if there is little wind stirring, the best angling is in swift streams.