FLY-FISHING. 273 



and thirty feet. The difficulty that prevented a true 

 exhibition of what could be done with the bass-bait, 

 was the necessity of casting within certain limits. 

 In actual bass-fishing, accuracy is not as important 

 as in fly-fishing, and much greater distances are un- 

 doubtedly reached than those officially recorded. 

 An open contest under liberal conditions has yet to 

 be inaugurated, and we have still no idea of what can 

 be actually done in this direction. 



In addition to the imitations of the natural fly, 

 efforts have been continually made to use artificial 

 representations of the other foods and baits of fish; 

 exact and beautiful copies of grasshoppers and frogs 

 have been constructed on scientific principles and 

 painted the exact colors of their prototypes, but 

 either from the nature of the composition or the 

 want of life, they have not attained satisfactory 

 success. It is doubtful whether ever a trout was 

 captured with such delusions as imitation grass- 

 hoppers, crickets, or frogs, no matter how confiding 

 the fish which was experimented upon. Although 

 they are still retained in the tackle shops, they no 

 longer find a place in the angler's book. Squids 

 and spoons are a different matter, and have been 

 long established among artificial baits, but tough 

 bees and wooden insects have proved in vain. Min- 

 nows are being imitated with better, although not 

 with half as good results as can be obtained with 

 the real bait. But this is not always to be had, as 

 sometimes minnow cannot be found, aud still more 

 frequently they cannot be caught. Then the gutta 



