Some Truths about T routing 123 



condemn bait ; but it is equally true that a number 

 of those very anglers use both bait and artificial 

 lures other than flies upon those numerous days 

 when trout are not keen for the fly. I have not the 

 slightest desire to belittle fly-fishing, nor have I any 

 hesitancy over saying that I have used most of the 

 obtainable baits. Unquestionably, when fly-fishing 

 is good, it is preferable, but unfortunately it is not 

 always good, or even fair ; nay, more often than not 

 it is utterly unreliable and not seldom impossible. 

 At such times, instead of fretting and stewing over 

 it, I go get bait, and, incidentally, trout. 



It may be the proper caper to sneer at bait, but to 

 use it on fine tackle may demand the fly-fisher's skill 

 and something more. The expert bait-fisher must 

 know what the trout are taking and why, also where 

 that thing is to be obtained and how. He has 

 more to do than to reach for his hat or book, and 

 if he cannot procure the exact thing, he must know 

 of one, two, or half-a-dozen possible substitutes, and 

 just where and how they are to be obtained at short 

 notice, which is apt to mean he must get them for 

 himself. After the fish is once hooked, the same 

 skill is required to play and land it, no matter if it 

 rose to a hackle, a worm, a grub, a young mouse, a 

 natural insect, or even that oft-used old reliable 

 a small section of some soulful sow. Hence it is 

 not all of fishing to cast flies, nor is it all of sound 

 sense to go without fish when you want 'em, simply 

 because the poetic way to take trout happens to be 

 by means of a bunco bug, fashioned out of barbed 

 wire and millinery, and bearing only a questionable 

 resemblance to any honest insect. 



