Winter Fly-Fishing in Nova Scotia 



SNOW-BANKS and ice are not usually associated 

 with fly-fishing. Tradition to the contrary not- 

 withstanding, they seem to collaborate beautifully 

 in furnishing sport for the hardy Nova Scotians, and, 

 incidentally, any others who wish to cast a fly but who 

 cannot wait until spring. 



The salmon-fishing season opens February ist. If the 

 day is reasonably sunny and warm and without wind, the 

 natives living upon the Medway River in Queen's County 

 get out their rods and swing a fly into their favourite 

 eddy, providing Jack Frost has left it open. Their 

 outfit consists of a husky, home-made greenheart, or 

 ash, spliced rod fourteen or fifteen feet long, and a 

 powerful, direct-acting reel, holding one hundred yards 

 of three-strand, heavy line, to which is attached an 

 eight- or nine-foot home-tied leader of the very best 

 English gut, swinging a home-made red or silver-bodied 

 fly, something over two inches long and decorated 

 principally with a pheasant wing. Their gaff is rabbit- 

 wired to a three-foot handle with a three-inch steel 

 hook, and is as sharp as a needle. 



As fishing at this time of the year is cold work, the 

 fisherman's usual clothing is augmented by shoe-packs, 

 or lumberman's rubbers, heavy mittens, mackinaw, and 

 cap pulled well over the ears. 



Often there is so much ice in the river that the fishing 

 is all done from the edge, and the fly is cast downstream 

 into the water that is too swift to freeze. 



I describe the weather and the winter environment 



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