The Fluke that Took a Fly 91 



the water several times in their endeavor 

 to defeat the angler. 



This is especially true of those wiry, 

 light-shaded specimens captured in swift- 

 running tideways, but it has often oc- 

 curred with me, even with the fish taken 

 in still, deep bay waters and with those 

 monsters captured in the surf. As for a 

 similar trait in the fluke caught in the 

 deep sea I cannot say, for I have never 

 sought them there. 



But let us return to my fluke of the fly 

 hook. With two friends I had been 

 catching porgies in Jamaica Bay, and 

 being short of small hooks, I tied on the 

 palmer fly and baited the barb with a 

 tiny bit of clam the smaller the bait in 

 porgie fishing the better, say I. As hap- 

 pens every now and again in this sort of 

 fishing, the hooks two of them, a few 

 inches apart on a single leader became 

 perfectly stripped of the bait, and I 

 started to lift my tackle for a fresh supply. 

 There was a heavy tide running, and my 



