Fishing with the Fly 



for work on very clear and much fished waters, when the trout 

 have by actual experience or hereditary knowledge become shy, 

 midges or very tiny flies on No. 12 hooks and very finely drawn 

 leaders will more successfully deceive them. On such streams the 

 English method of dry-fly fishing is often the only style of casting 

 that will put trout in the creel. 



The usual style of trout-fly fishing consists in wading the 

 stream and making casts in likely places — at the foot of riffles, at 

 the edges of stumps, logs and brush and beneath overhanging 

 bushes and banks. The dry-fly fisher, on the contrary, waits until 

 he perceives a rising fish and then presents his fly in such a man- 

 ner that it will float over it. In order to have the flies float, 

 they must be dry, and to keep them dry the angler goes along 

 his way casting them backward and forward through the air, never 

 letting them touch the water until actually presenting them to the 

 fish. This continual swinging enables him to have a quantity of 

 line out and under instant control and also dries the flies after 

 each unsuccessful immersion. 



Some fishermen drag the flies over the water at the end of 

 each cast, believing that the motion resembles that of an aerial 

 insect endeavoring to escape to land, and flies are often tied with 

 heads toward the hook barb so that, on being drawn over the 

 water, the resistance of their legs and wings will cause them to 

 flutter as if alive. 



Other anglers declare that the more attractive method is to 

 allow the flies to float quietly, and to enable them to remain on the 

 surface, the bodies of some flies are wound over strips of cork. 



Trout, black bass, grayling and salmon, are the principal 

 American fishes whose capture may be sought with the fly. Both 

 the grayling and salmon may be dismissed with a word. The 

 former, while game, is found in comparatively few waters. The 

 latter requires expensive tackle, boats, guides, and the rights to fish 

 in the waters which it inhabits rent at so high a figure that com- 

 paratively few fishermen can afford to indulge in the pastime of 

 bringing them to gaff. Trout and bass, like one's poor relations, 

 are always with us, scarcely any portion of this country is without 

 its trout or bass water, and the poorest man may occupy his vaca- 

 tion in submitting the fly to their critical taste. The little sunfish 

 or pumpkin-seed of our ponds and fresh water streams possesses 

 game qualities not generally recognized. Although usually fished 



xlix 



