96 FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



best parts of the season, and only then can it be hoped 

 to take large trout with the fly. 



Little fly-fishing is done on the Rangely Lakes in June, 

 trolling being then the customary method by which the 

 large fish are taken. A six-inch chub on a single hook 

 makes up the lure, triple hooks or gangs being prohibited 

 by a rigidly enforced law. My own experience there in 

 that month is limited to three days in 1883. I was then 

 fairly successful in numbers but failed in size, nothing 

 over two and a half pounds being taken. The common 

 report is that the large trout will not then take the fly ; 

 but some of the guides with whom I conversed thought 

 the prevalence of this opinion was due to the fact that so 

 little fly-fishing was then practised in other words, that 

 its merits had never been fairly tested at that season. If 

 a fly is properly presented to a large trout, I cannot be- 

 lieve that it would be more likely to be ignored then than 

 in September, since a few days before the large trout in 

 neighboring waters took it fully as well, if not better, 

 than in the month last named. But it may be they 

 do not bunch in June as they do in September, or per- 

 haps not in the same places, though even this was not 

 the case in the waters before referred to. Therefore, 

 though it is believed the chance of taking large trout in 

 the Rangely Lakes is as good in the one month as in the 

 other, still this opinion has not been sufficiently subjected 

 to the crucial test of actual trial, to warrant its accept- 

 ance as an established fact. 



By trolling more ground is covered, and, of course, 



