FISHING 



547 



fish weigh ounces instead of pounds trout fish- 

 ing may be most excellent fun. It takes you to 

 the waterside when Nature is draped in her 

 Easter robes, and by the time those robes are 

 faded the rod must be put away for another 

 year — unless you fish the waters of the Pacific 

 slope, where the rainbow and other spring- 

 spawning trout are at their best in September 

 and early October. Some of the large trout 

 waters of the State of Maine and Canada are 

 best fished with a rod up to eleven feet in length 

 — but as a general thing a rod of from 7^ feet to 

 92 feet is a better implement. 



For serious fishing a rod should not be too 

 light. My heaviest rod is 10 feet long and 

 weighs 6 ounces, while my lightest weighs just 

 3I ounces and is 72 feet in length. This rod is 

 seldom used, as its strength is not sufficient to 

 master a big trout in the cold Northern waters 

 where I do most of my fishing. For brook trout 

 just over the legal length and averaging four to 

 the pound it is just the thing, but I do not be- 

 lieve in fiddling with a heavy fish with any such 

 weapon. Sometimes luck favors a fisherman 

 beyond his deserts. As an instance: Several 

 years ago a friend hooked a 2 2 -pound salmon 

 on the Restigouche, his rod being a " trunk," 

 8-joint abomination, weighing some nine ounces 

 and about as poor a weapon as a man could ask 

 for, if he wanted to give a present to a friend 

 against whom he had a grudge. The salmon 

 was hooked about 10 o'clock in the morning and 

 was gaffed from a rock in midstream at 4 o'clock 

 in the afternoon. The fish was nice and fresh 

 when gaffed, and did not appear to be half so 

 weary as the angler. With most of us the fly 

 would have worked free about 3.45 p. m., and 

 w r e should have had our weariness and experi- 

 ence for our pains — but some folk are born 

 lucky and they alone should fish for salmon 

 with trout rods. 



Multiplying reels are just as inadmissible for 

 fly fishing for trout as for salmon, though one 

 sees fairly good anglers using them, sometimes, 

 but only when they do more bait casting than 

 fly fishing and desire to make one reel serve both 

 purposes. If the reel will hold 25 -yards of suit- 

 able line it will serve all probable needs, though 

 classical authorities seem to require about 

 double that length of line. 



As a rule, fishermen make the mistake of 

 choosing a very light rod and mating it to heavy 

 leaders and big flies. European anglers fall into 

 just the opposite error. They use a young 

 weaver's beam and yet scorn anything but the 

 finest "casts," i.e., leaders and flies that run 

 between Nos. 10 and 14. I have no patience 

 with the man who in early spring monkeys with 

 too fine tackle, holding that a fairly stout leader 

 and a fly of about No. 7 size fill the conditions, 



but after the end of June I have had remarkable 

 success with midge flies and drawn gut leaders, 

 when some of my friends were doing nothing to 

 brag about. 



The salmon fisherman can get along nicely 

 with half a dozen fly patterns, provided he has a 

 sufficient choice of sizes, but the trout angler 

 needs a good assortment, as fontinalis is most 

 fickle. I have cast hundreds of different pat- 

 terns, but have usually had most success with 

 some one of the following: Abbey, alder, 

 Beaverkill, Cahill, cowdung, grizzly king, green 

 and gray drakes, golden spinner, governor, king 

 of the water, Montreal, March brown, professor, 

 Parmachenee belle, Jenny Lind, Seth Green, 

 Wilson, willow, white miller, brown hackle and 

 blue dun. In addition, there are a lot of small, 

 nondescript duns and midges, for which each 

 tyer has his own names, that are invaluable in 

 low, clear water, when the more gaudy fancy 

 patterns merely give the fish palpitations. 



A good landing net is a useful article, and it 

 is much better to choose one with a long handle 

 that will do as a staff in wading. Perhaps some 

 manufacturer of fishing-tackle will be good 

 enough to inform me why landing nets are 

 made with such a small mesh, and so deep? I 

 fail to see the advantage of either the tiny mesh 

 or of the depth. A large, open mesh is much 

 easier to manipulate in the water, and not so 

 likely to entangle the hook; and, as to depth, I 

 have never seen a trout succeed in jumping out 

 of a net even when I had made it less than half 

 the usual depth. 



A good fisherman always aims to take back 

 his fish in presentable condition, so as soon as 

 they have been rapped on the head, he places 

 them carefully in the creel, out of the way of 

 sun and wind. Even then they will become 

 discolored on a warm day, but Mr. Harrington 

 Keene gave me a tip some years ago that I have 

 followed with advantage. As soon as a fish is 

 caught, wrap it in a sheet of the finest tissue 

 paper (carried for the purpose), and by keeping 

 the fish in this almost air-tight covering, it is as 

 bright as a dollar when you get to camp. Above 

 all things, do not allow your fish to soak in 

 water, even for a minute, after they are dead, 

 as it ruins them both in appearance and in flavor. 



This paper having run to proportions to tax 

 the editor's forbearance, I must now conclude, 

 though, as may be imagined, there is much 

 more one could say upon the subject. Perhaps 

 "a few words upon trout fishing regions may not 

 however be amiss. Incomplete as they are, I 

 can nevertheless claim them to be the result of 

 experience and not of hearsay. 



For big trout, as well as for little trout, the 

 State of Maine cannot be beaten, though for 

 numbers of big fish it will not compare with the 



