NEW ARTIFICIAL NATURE LURES 



these fancy minnows look more attractive and 

 beautiful to our eyes, the natural imitation will win 

 out, just as nature flies have done and will do over 

 fancy flies. 



Seven years ago I wrote an illustrated magazine 

 article with the title, "Try Bass and Trout Flies 

 with Metal Bodies." It described how I invented 

 four flies, two with gold and two with silver bodies, 

 having black, brown, gray, and white wings. Re- 

 cently there appeared a magazine article on dry 

 flies, in which the writer stated, "These metal-body 

 flies are still in use and are far superior to old 

 favorites." Personally, I have discarded them for 

 my more recent "nature flies," which I consider are 

 as far as can be got in the right direction. 



When I showed the feather minnow to a member 

 of a well-known tackle firm he said, "There is noth- 

 ing new under the sun," and placed before me a 

 bass minnow (tarnished with age) made and used 

 forty years ago; thus proving my often-repeated 

 statement that we have gone backward in the mak- 

 ing of lures, so far as nature is concerned. This 

 old minnow has a tail of peacock's harl, with stripes 

 along the back of red, black, and green wool. The 

 belly is common tinfoil, the whole wound over with 

 silver tinsel. I asked permission to copy it, and the 

 result is seen in No. 1 of the six shown on the page 

 of illustrations for this chapter. The only altera- 

 tion I made was the additional plume, giving a more 



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