CATCHING BLUE GILLS WITH THE FLY. 



BY W. C. KEPLER. 



"Charley, what do you call those 

 things? " 



" Artificial flies for catching fish." 



" Am I to understand that you catch 

 fish with them? " 



"That's what I mean. With the 

 addition of a rod, reel and line I can 

 just haul 'em out. Why, you ought to 

 have seen me " 



"There, there, never mind telling 

 me any fish yarns. I have no doubt 

 you can catch 'em by the million ; what 

 I Avant to know is how you use those 

 little feathered toys? " 



"Well, here's my rod," said Charley, 

 jointing a nice eight ounce lancewood, 

 "and -" 



"You mean to say you catch fish on 

 that thing? Come off! Why, that 

 wouldn't hold the bait we use on Raw- 

 son Lake. You might sit in bed and 

 use it to catch fleas, though." 



" Now see here, Fred, you don't know 

 w^hat you are talking about," said 

 Charle}', considerably nettled by his 

 cousin's talk, " I'll just show you some- 

 time. " 



"That's all right, Charley; you need 

 not get on your dignity over anything, 

 but if you expect me to believe that 

 little switch with its nickel trimmings 

 and those little fuzzy hooks will catch 

 fish, you are dizzy, that's all. Now 

 you just come over to my place next 

 week and I'll show you you're not in it. 

 I have a nice cane pole twenty feet long 

 and lots of nice fat angle w'orms, and 

 I'll just give you a lesson or two." 



"All right, Fred, if I can get away 

 I'll be there." 



The above conversation occurred be- 



tween my friend, Mr. Charles W. D. 

 Allen, and his cousin, Mr. Neasmith. 

 I have no doubt Mr. Neasmith exag- 

 gerated his opinion of fly-fishing just 

 for the pleasure of teazing Charley; at 

 the same time I believe he had more 

 faith in a worm than in any other style 

 of bait for the kind of fish we expected 

 to catch — blue-gills. 



Charley kindly invited me to accom- 

 pany him and share the sport. So one 

 bright morning, in the latter part of 

 May — a lovely day with a warm south- 

 west wind, the sky full of fleecy clouds 

 that continually shaded and tempered 

 the sun — we set out. For transporta- 

 tion we used our bicycles, strapping 

 our rods to the cross-bars and placing 

 our reels and a few other things in a 

 parcel carrier which is attached to the 

 frame. 



Our road was a smooth, hard prairie, 

 almost level, and the distance we had 

 to go about four miles and a half. 

 This was covered in a very short time, 

 and we arrived at Mr. Neasmith's about 

 nine o'clock. Charley hadn't notified 

 him of our coming, and w^e found him 

 absent, having gone to the village of 

 Vicksburg. 



We stacked up our wheels and loafed 

 about the front lawn, cooling ofif in the 

 delightful breeze that was blowing and 

 awaited the coming of Mr. Neasmith. 

 This was delayed considerably longer 

 than we anticipated, and we finally 

 concluded to start tow^ard the village 

 and meet him and also see if we could 

 pick up one or tw^o bullfrogs for bait 

 casting. In this we were unsuccessful, 

 but in the course of half an hour met 



