A LIVE ARTIFICIAL FLY. 



Mr. Wm. Boyle, the " Golden Specific" man, of Cincinnati, referring 

 to scientific fly casting, mentioned the following incident in his career: I 

 was fishing in a rocky stream, where remarkable skill is required to secure 

 a full creel, as the trout were educated, so to speak, to avoid the ordinary 

 wiles of the angler. On the occasion alluded to, I threw a fly so far and 

 so delicately that, as it hovered close to the water, it took life and was 

 about to make use of its wings to soar away, vsrhen a huge trout, seeing it 

 rise from the surface, made a leap and turned the course of the insect's 

 travel from the upper air to the bottom of his throat. It is generally 

 known that natural flies originate from dead matter, and I had always 

 believed it possible for any man of inventive genius to transform a 

 handsome artificial fly into a live one, so my experiment simply proved 

 the theory. 



ONE SWALLOW TOO MANY. 



Speaking of live bait, said Mr. Chalmers, of the National Manufac- 

 turing & Importing Co., Chicago, I had an amusing experience a few 

 years ago in the lake region of Wisconsin. I was fishing for black bass, 

 with a bait rod, and having good sport, when suddenly the minnow fell 

 from the hook just as I was making a cast. As the minnow fell a swallow 

 darting by was caught on the hook, and dropped struggling to the water, 

 where it was seized by a large bass. I proceeded to reel in the fish, but 

 an instant later a huge mascalonge swallowed the bass, and the reel sang a 

 livelier tune than ever before. I felt doubtful about my ability to land the 

 mascalonge, but by careful work I exhausted the fish, and in about twentj' 

 minutes had the satisfaction 9f bringing it to the gaff and secured it in good 

 style. As a singular fact I observed that upon taking the bass from the 

 throat of the mascalonge and loosening the hook, the swallow was found 

 to be alive, and flew away as soon as it was liberated. I always regarded 

 it as an excellent illustration of the evil of taking one swallow too many — 

 a moral which amused the listeners at the expense of the narrator. 



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