Getting Out the Fly Books 



More recently, an acquaintance has told 

 me, that in a season of low water, when 

 disappointment had been universal, he had 

 good success in this river with the use of 

 midge-flies and light casts. 



This question, why the fly of the salmon- 

 fly type is taken, has been much discussed 

 in connection with salmon-fishing. For- 

 merly, the belief that salmon never fed 

 while in fresh water complicated the in- 

 quiry. The contrary being now well es- 

 tablished, it is altogether probable that the 

 fly is seized for examination as possible 

 food. There is a curious difference be- 

 tween the ordinary behavior of a trout and 

 a salmon. As a rule, a trout which takes 

 a small fly, apparently in mistake for a liv- 

 ing insect, rejects it almost instantly, if it 

 can. The salmon, on the contrary, usu- 

 ally starts for his hold with the fly in his 

 mouth, to examine it there, possibly be- 

 cause of a habit acquired while feeding 

 upon Crustacea in the sea. Whether a 

 fresh-run fish takes a fly, or any given fly, 

 on account of its resemblance in the water 

 to some kind of food known at sea, is one 

 of the open questions. But after the fish 

 have been some time in fished water, they 

 become usually much more wary. It is 

 interesting to watch their behavior, which 



18 



