CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 159 
a number of times. In order to be successful, it is necessary to cast 
as many as twelve or more times over the fish. Each cast has to be 
letter perfect and the fly should not be lifted off the water until there 
is absolutely no chance of frightening the fish. One mistake spoils 
everything. If the suspicions of the fish are once aroused, he loses 
all interest in the proceedings. 
The theory is that by making a number of casts over the fish, you 
create in his mind the belief that there is a hatch of some fly coming 
on, and so long as no mistakes are made, the effort may eventually be 
successful. The fish in this river, however, seem to feed mainly on 
erasshoppers, and during the time that the grasshoppers are present 
in large numbers they pay very little attention to anything else. 
Third Tourist: Don’t the fish feed in the evenings, when there are 
generally lots of flies on the water? 
Angler: Not during the time of the harvest of apenas You will 
notice a lot of small fish and some chubs feeding on these flies; but 
the larger fish are resting while their heavy meal of ‘hoppers is digest- 
ing. Whenever you happen to be fishing in a stream. where you know 
there are good-sized trout and you catch nothing but small ones, you 
can make up your mind that the big fellows are not feeding. When 
they do feed the little trout keep out of the way. 
Second Tourist: Then as I understand it, when the fish are a 
feeding on the surface, a dry fly is not much good. 
Angler: That is correct with one exception—there is ofcourse the 
possibility of getting an odd fish by creating an artificial rise of fly. 
When the dry fly does not produce results, then we change over and 
fish with a wet or sunk fly and quite possibly get some fish. 
Third Tourist: Why didn’t you fish with a wet fly while you were 
waiting this morning? 
Angler: First of all, I knew it was only a question of a comparatively 
short time before the ’hoppers would begin to fly. Then, again, these 
fish are shy. They are very wary and not easy to catch, as the result 
of the continual fishing that goes on day after day throughout the 
entire open season. I considered it best not to add still further to 
their education by raking the water with a wet fly when I was so sure 
that they would soon be feeding on the top. 
Tourist: You remember speaking about ‘‘drag’’? Should a.dry fly 
always float with the stream and never move at all on the surface? 
Angler: In general, yes. But there are times and occasions when a 
deliberate drag, that is, a drag produced by the fisherman himself, may 
get a fish to rise, when possibly if no drag had been made, he would 
pay no attention to the fly. 
Second Tourist: This sounds interesting. Can you give an example 
from your own experience where a forced drag was successful? 
Angler: Yes. A few weeks ago I was fishing farther north. During 
the latter part of the afternoon a lot of small sedge flies hatched out 
and got onto the water. These flies belong to a different family than 
that to which the majority of the flies that we see belong. The sedge 
flies light on the surface; fly up a short distance and light again. 
When they are on the surface, they frequently move, sometimes even 
