FLY-FISHING. 277 



or even replaced with brass, and should be kept 

 well burnished on the bright side. Feathers of 

 gaudy colors, such as ibis, golden pheasant neck, 

 mallard, and wood-duck, interspersed with plain 

 white, are often fastened along the shank ; spoons 

 thus prepared are favorites of the black-bass, but 

 have no advantage for mascallonge over the bare 

 hooks ; they are also used successfully for trout, 

 especially those captured in salt water, and the fea- 

 thers as well as the coloring of the tin may be 

 adapted to the state of the weather. On clear, sun- 

 shiny days dull colors are preferable, as with artifi- 

 cial flies ; and in dark or rainy weather the lightest 

 colors answer best. Three additional hooks are 

 sometimes added, and allowed to dangle loosely be- 

 low the others ; although these occasionally capture 

 a fish that has missed striking the spoon fairly, they 

 are more frequently bitten off; they are really no 

 advantage, and if once imbedded in the bristling 

 jaws of a gasping pickerel, their extraction is both 

 difficult and dangerous. 



Of the different varieties of artificial bait, not of 

 course including the artificial fly, the most general 

 and successful is Buel's Spoon ; it is taken by all the 

 pickerel, from the monstrous mascallonge to the 

 tiny native of Long Island ; by the trout of lake or 

 brook ; by the black-bass of the North and South, 

 and by the young blue-fish of the salt water ; it is 

 generally a greater favorite than the artificial, and 

 sometimes even than the natural bait ; with black- 

 bass it has no competitor but the fly, and with sea- 



