NEW ARTIFICIAL NATURE LURES 



these fancy minnows look more attractive and 

 beautiful to our eyes, the natural imitation will win 

 out, just as natvu-e 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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