TROUT FLIES By A. Courtney Williams
Is it an angling heresy to say that the flyfisher—the wet-fly fisher—is and must be a rank empiricist ? Thus, of the whole fly-question the late and much lamented H. T. Sheringham avers that " it seems absolutely impossible to reduce it to anything like a clear and simple system," and Mr. Williams in his Trout Flies (Black, 21s.), supports him. All the same, out of the empiricist lore of an expert something like a system can be constructed, and .the tiro can form some definite opinion of the best flies he shmild use, if he wants to kill trout. But then we all have our fancies. Probably most wet-fly men will swear by the Greenwell ; the Welshman has his coch-y-bondhu and his " button " ; the Scot, disclaiming any pretence at imitating nature, will tell you that no one ought to fish a loch without a teal-and-red or a Zulu. Mr. Williams makes A Discussion and a Dictionary the sub-title of his excellent book, and that sufficiently explains its contents. In the course of that dis- cussion many interesting points emerge, as for example that trout, on the evidence of an actual autopsy, do eat sticklebacks, for which the author thinks they probably mistake an Alexandra. A catholic-minded angler and writer, Mr. Williams thinks dry-fishing easier than wet ! His coloured plates of flies are both beautiful and correct, and there is a useful vocabulary of French and German fly-names with their English equivalents.
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