148 APPENDIX. 



southerly or south-westerly weather is the onZy weather for trout fishing", 

 few old Long Island anglers are to be found who cannot state that they 

 have taken as many, some say viore, fish during the prevalence of eas- 

 terly winds, as in any weather. A friend of mine, on whose authority I 

 can perfectly rely, and to whom I gladly record my indebtedness for 

 many facts stated in this paper, assures me that he has never known 

 trout to take the fly more freely than during a northeasterly snow storm. 

 Still, I must consider these as exceptions to the general rule ; and I at 

 least would select, if I had my choice, " a southerly wind and a cloudy 

 sky" — always barring thunder — and no objection to a slight sprinkling 

 of warm rain. 



There is another peculiarity to obser\'e in the Long Island waters — 

 and, so far as I know, in them only — that trout bite decidedly better and 

 more freely, when the water is very fine and clear, than when it is in 

 flood and turbid. Indeed, if there be a good ripple on the surface, the 

 water can hardly be too transparent. 



It has been suggested to me, that this may be accounted for by the 

 fact that in flood the waters are so well filled with natural bait, that the 

 fish become gorged and lazy. I cannot say, however, that this is per- 

 fectly satisfactory to me ; as the same must be the case, more or less, in 

 all waters ; whereas it is unquestionably the case, wherever I have fished, 

 except on Long Island, that trout are more easily taken in turbid than 

 in fine water. 



As connected with the foregoing remarks I will here add, that, as a 

 general rule, the minnow, with spinning or trolling tackle, is found to be 

 more killing than ground bait in the ponds, and vice versa, in the tide 

 streams — probably from the mere fact that the minnow is the rarer in 

 the one water, the red-worm in the other, and that each in its rarity be- 

 comes the greater dainty. 



For myself, I would not give sixpence to kill the finest trout that ever 

 ran a line off a reel, with a ground-bait, and even spinning a minnow I 

 hold ignoble sport, as compared with throwing the fly ; and, so far as I 

 have myself observed, and have heard from others, the same flies which 

 are the most killing in England, as a general rule, take the most and best 

 fish here — I mean the different shades of hackle, from dun and bright 

 red, to partridge, woodcock, and dark grey or black. 



The darker flies I consider to be the most killing early in the season ; 

 and, very late, I have seen extremely bright flies, with bodies of gaudy 

 silk and tinsel, do considerable execution. 



It is worthy of remark, though it is quite unaccountable to me why it 

 should be so, that the English imported flies fail altogether, from being 

 tied on hooks many times too small ; the trout in all American waters, 

 so far as I have seen, rising more readily, and being more easily taken 

 with a very large fly, which no English fish would look at. This is the 

 more remarkable, because, as I have observed, the trout in the English 

 rivers run to six or eight times the size of the average fish of this coun- 

 try ; yet these monsters are taken with a hook which would be properly 

 rejected as too small by every experienced angler in the United States. 



Beyond this, there is little difference in the mode of taking trout here 



