April S3, 1885. 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



253 



Alder Fly.— The dressing closely follows Mr. Ronalds's 

 directions. ' The -wing as represented may be taken as a pea- 

 hen's feather. This is the secondary form of dressing given by 

 Mr. Bonalds, and as noted above is hardly as accurate a re- 

 production of the colors of the insect as a brown hen or 

 brown mallow feather used by the writers cited when notic- 

 ing Mr. Holberton's imitation. 



Cow Dung Fly.— The female fly is shown dressed very 

 closely after Mr. Ronalds's. The wings are brown and in 

 accord with the precedents of Bowlker, Francis, Blacker and 

 others named above. 



Taking the same two fancy flies as before, it will be 

 noticed that Mr. Orvis has departed from the dressing of the 

 professor, as given in "The Rod and the Gun," by adding a 

 red tail and by ribbing the body of the fly with gold tinsel. 

 In the grizzly king the gray hackle is used, but. the body is 

 ribbed with gold tinsel, which is not mentioned by Professor 

 Wilson. 



Mr. Orvis gives a fern fly and a soldier fly. The former 

 is dressed with a yellow body, yellow hackle and pale gray 

 bt starling wing. ' With the exception of the hackle and the 

 use of a lighter color body, it is a reproduction of Mr. Ron- 

 alds's fern fly. The soldier fly has a scarlet body, red hackle, 

 dark eray wing, and resembles Mr. Jackson's dressing of 

 his fly of the same name. It is apparent from a reading of 

 Mr. Ronalds's and Mr. Jackson's works that both sought to 

 imitate the same insect. Both remark that the original is 

 not a fly, but a beetle, of which there are two kinds, one 

 with reddish-orange wing cases, the other with blue cases, 

 commonly called "soldiers and sailors'' respectively. It is 

 very piainfrom Mr. Ronalds's dressing that he did not seek to 

 imitate the sailor variety, for he has not used a particle of 

 blue, employing orange floss silk, red haekle and the darkest 



Eart of a feather from the starling's wing. Mr. Walbran 

 as noticed this difference of names but identity of insect in 

 a note to the soldier beetle in Mr. Theakston's work. Under 

 these circumstances it would seem more accurate and less 

 likely to lead to confusion to describe the imitation as the 

 fern fly or soldier fly, and if it was desired to retain both 

 forms of dressing they could be distinguished by suitable 

 language, as by adding the names Ronalds or Jackson, as 

 the case might require. 



In addition to the March brown Mr. Orvis gives a brown 

 coflin. Ephemera gives "March brown, dun drake, cob fly 

 and brown caughlin" as imitations of the same insect, Mr. 

 Walbran, in his note to Theakston's brown drake, speaks of 

 the March brown as called dun drake in Yorkshire and cob 

 fly in Wales. Mr. Blacker, after describing the dun drake, 

 adds, "the Irisb name for the dun drake is 'caughlan,' made 

 thus: the wings, gray partridge tail; the body, light brown 

 bear's fur with bright yellow mobair, hare's fur from the 

 face mixed altogether, forked with two strips of a dark mal- 

 lard's feather and a partridge hackle." This dressing he 

 credits to Mr. Taylor, who h~e says was very fond of Irish 

 flies, and introduced many of them in Scotland, England 

 and Wales. Mr. Francis speaks of the "marsh brown or 

 cob fly of Wales; brown drake of Yorkshire." These quo- 

 tations certainly point to the fact that these different names 

 have been applied to the imitation of one and the same iusect. 

 In this aspect it would seem more correct to use the words 

 March brown or brown coughlin, and to appropriately des- 

 ignate such different forms of dressing as are reproduced. 

 Mr. Holberton gives his imitation of the insect under the 

 name "brown coflin or March brown." 



Taken as a whole, such of Mr. Orvis's flies as imitate in- 

 sects under their names show some careful reading of well- 

 known writers, and as between Mr. Holberton 's plate and the 

 designs of Mr. Orvis, I think the percentage of departures 

 from generally-received authorities and from nature is in the 

 latter's favor! I do not speak of the fancy flies, as I have 

 not investigated or compared them all. 



The retrospect is not pleasing, the future is hardly more 

 attractive. There is no standard at present. Mr. Holberton 

 is not sufficiently accurate to entitle his plate to the position. 

 Mr. Orvis may have some claim, but there are some correc- 

 tions to be made in his list. That it is desirable to have a 

 standard which, will secure uniformity in nomenclature and 

 in dressings will not be questioned. The most interested 

 persons are the sufferers from the present condition of things, 

 the anglers, and they must take the initiative. If there were 

 a fly-fishers club or association, it would be the proper body 

 to act. I know of none, but possibly some representative 

 body of anglers will notice the complaints in your colums 

 and take appropriate action. The magnitude of the under- 

 taking must not be overlooked. Some idea may be formed 

 of it by considering the very large number of artificial flies, 

 and the time necessarily to be spent in consulting angling 

 books and fly-tyers, in searching for the origin and history of 

 flies and forms of dressing, in examining the natural history 

 of the insects imitated and in formulating the dressings in 

 each instance. 



But dealers must not wait for such action. They can at 

 once do away with, or at least lessen some of the evils com- 

 plained of. Uniformity in their own dressings and accuracy 

 in following patterns will in a measure afford relief to the 

 anglers. In the class of fancy flies, where the originator is 

 alive and known, there is little or no excuse for diverse 

 dressings. A line to the inventor, asking his directions for 

 dressing or his approval of a form inclosed, or better yet, a 

 pattern from his fly-book, will surely receive a ready 

 response. It is not to be assumed that anglers of the present 

 day are deficient in courtesy. 



Let the fly-tyers seek to increase the standard of efficiency 

 in their calling by investigating not only the literature 

 mentioned heretofore, but the insect in its natural dress, for 

 comparison of the artificial with the natural fly is the best 

 test of excellence where imitation is desired. To attain the 

 highest rank in the calling requires no mean accomplishments, 

 not alone dexterity of hand and quickness of eye, but the 

 experience of the angler and the learning of the naturalist. 

 Lastly, whenever there is a failure to imitate the natural 

 insect, or a departure from the original of a fancy fly, 

 attention should be publicly called to the fact. Suck "a 

 course cannot fail to have a most salutory effect. 



W. W. Ladd, Jr. 



New York, April, 1885. 



What Ails the Cabp?— About eighteen months ago, E. 

 M. Fox, of this village, put thirty-six carp of nearly one 

 pound each in a marshy pond of about twenty acres. The 

 pond is supposed to be ten or twelve feet deep in the deepest 

 place, has no outlet nor inlet. One hundred and twenty-six 

 dead ones have been counted this spring, varying in size 

 from four inches long to seven and a half pounds weight. 

 Probably there are many more dead ones that have not been 

 found. Can you give us any light as to what caused so many 

 to die?— R. N. P. (Orland, Steuben county, Md.\ 



THE MOST KILLING FLY. 



IT is a debatable question. The letters have all been inter- 

 esting and instructive, but we are no nearer the point than 

 at first, yet something has been learned from each one. 

 Many a time have I come from the woods, determined that 

 another season should find me fishing the same streams with 

 an assortment of yellow mays and professors. I took them, 

 but also an assortment of other flies, for reason prevailed 

 over the cnthusiam of the past season, and I preferred 

 not to be left with only two or three kinds of flies. _ At one 

 time in a small stream the trout run on coachmen, in differ- 

 ent form; put on coachmen, either lead wing, royal, red tip, 

 or gilt, and I could insure killing some trout. In a stream 

 within a quarter of a mile, inhabited by bright-colored trout, 

 and whose home was among the shady alders and hazels, the 

 fish would not look at a coachman, but put on a (ire fly, or a 

 small ibis, and you had plenty of fun on hand. A small red 

 worm suited them better than either. We carried in our 

 worms for the wife and boy's fishing, bringing them 250 

 miles, for no worms could be found there. In a cold, clear 

 stream whose mouth was shallow, we tried in vain to find a 

 fly to suit the captious denizens, though they were jumping 

 by the dozen. We tried seventeen kinds of flies and could 

 not hook one, though we turned over several. A. minute fly 

 was flitting on the surface of the water. I secured one and 

 found I was without anything like it in my fly-book, but 

 in the tent I had a few, sent me by R. B. Marston, Esq., of 

 the London Fishvtf/ Gazette, resembling these flies, but so 

 small I had been afraid to use them. This time I tried them, 

 and I think I never crowded so much fun into an hour in all 

 my fishing experience. They were reversed winged white 

 flies with hackles. 



Another time I was at a stream whose trout were a firm, 

 hard fish, fierce fighters, but 1 could not seduce them. Day 

 after day, hours after hours I tried them. The only trout 

 I killed was with an Orvis floating Majr fly, or "caddis fly" 

 as it is termed in his book. Did ever an angler attempt 

 honestly to secure fish? I did. This caddis was a big fly. 

 I caught one fine fish, and in casting again got hung to a 

 cedar bough lying across the creek, and snapped my fly 

 close to the head and lost it in the creek. I would willingly 

 have given a dollar each for a few of these flies. They are 

 always prime favorites with me. My only regret is they 

 cannot be made on small hooks. 



While fishing the Superior Brule a party of gentlemen 

 were using the fly. Some of them were having splendid 

 luck, others could not get a rise. It was a peculiar fly these 

 fish fancied, something similar to the Montreal, but had not 

 the long red tail feathers. A more killing fly could not be 

 found. One of this party always keeps a supply of these 

 flies in his book, and is ready to swear by them every time 

 when fishing Lake Superior waters. My opinion has been 

 formed from fishing in many different waters, and I con- 

 clude that to kill trout one must study closely the ephemera 

 produced by the waters in which these trout live. If caddis 

 worms are found in the water you may rely on the trout 

 being gamy, of fine color and very fat. On such a stream 

 when the May fly is rising you may cast any other fly never 

 so cunningly, from morn to dewy eve, and get no trout. 

 Put on a floating May fly, handle it carefully, and you stand 

 good chances of killing trout. 



In streams running into Lake Superior the "Seth Green" 

 and governor are standard flies, but you cannot be certain that 

 the wily trout will look at them. Whip two strands unrav- 

 elled from a piece of red flannel to a fair-sized hook, and the 

 barbarians will jump for it at almost any time. This sum- 

 mer I hope to try the McNee pike-scale flies and the red lag, 

 a new fly just coming into use. Norman. 



Doltjth, Minn., April, 1885. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



To a beginner who is trying to stray from the beaten paths 

 of bait-fishing, the articles that have appeared in Forest 

 and Stream from lime to time under the above heading are 

 very interesting. While I put down the merits of each fly 

 in my notebook under discussion, I fail to see any that are 

 recommended for Kentucky waters. Is this because the fish 

 in the waters of this State are not educated to take the fly, 

 or because they are not caught in this way in this State? 

 When I read the enthusiastic descriptions of fly-fishing, 

 north, east, south and west, the many delightful and red-let- 

 ter days enjoyed by its votaries and ever-increasing disciples, 

 I feel as though we are losing one of the noblest pastimes 

 given to man. Our streams may not contain trout nor the 

 lordly salmon, yet the finny tribe is represented here in fair 

 numbers. I would ask the anglers of Kentucky and the 

 anglers who have fished its waters to give in their experiences 

 the best flies to use, the seasons and days in which they take 

 best. It will benefit all, even A Beginner. 



North Middt,etown, Ky. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I read Mr. Sparry's practical article on this subject and I 

 am personally very much obliged to him, being a new comer 

 and having also graduated in the waters which he knows so 

 well, nameiy, the Itchen, of Hampshire, England. 



As an angler who has devoted his life to fish and fishing I 

 was rudely shocked to find that the trout of this great 

 country were so ill-educated as to take only the large, 

 gaudy, "fancy" flies. But I am reassured to find that 

 the small gnat "professor and queen of the water," as Mr. S. 

 eulogististicaby emphasizes it, is not unknown, but is evidently 

 as much a favorite among a select few here as in the spark- 

 ling lucid waters of the beautiful Itchen. There is one fly 

 which I do not see Mr. S. refer to, but it is possible he may 

 not have tried it, and that is "Sparry's fancy/' so named 

 after that evergreen sportsman, my friend Edward Sparry, 

 of Winchester, mother words, Mr.W.C. Sparry's brother, if 

 I mistake not. This fly has brought me many a good brace 

 of trout when all else failed, and is a simple badger hackle, 

 black fur with white tip tied on a very small hook No. 14, I 

 think. 



I am open to correction, but it is my gospel that an imi- 

 tation of the natural insect on which the trout feed is the 

 true and rational method of fly-fishing. True it is in our 

 much fished English waters here, that a fly evolved entirely 

 out of the inner consciousness of the angler will sometimes 

 kill well on occasions, and that for years. Take the Kick 

 ham's fancy for example. Here is a fancy fly formed simply 

 of a furnace hackle and gold tinsel which will dig the trout 

 out of the water on the Test and Itchen when other means 

 have utterly failed. Many a time has it brought sport to 

 me when nothing else would, and yet 1 can say that so far 

 as I know, it is not an imitation of anything in the heavens 

 aboye and the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth. 

 So also it got sport when used by another Wintonian, Geo. 



Currell (also well known to Mr. S.) on the river Natasbquhan 

 (Labrador) when dressed large for salmon. 



But give to me the ineffable charm of taking the tiny fairy- 

 winged dun from the water's surface as it floats with mimic 

 majesty erect, and there and then imitating it with silk fur 

 and feather, thereafter urging this "counterfeit presentment" 

 to where your three-pounder is with almost rhythmic rise 

 and fall, lipping in the fly's abounding kin. Can one ex- 

 press, in even the poet's song, the exquisite transports of 

 triumph which the fisher presently feels as the beautiful fish 

 lies on the long lush meadow grass, glorious and radiant, 

 panting out its life? Emphatically this is the poetry of all 

 angiitis, and I rejoice to find that there are appreciations of 

 it in this land of "many rivers of waters." 



Trusting to again see' Mr. Sparry's name in your columns 

 I repeat that I thank him for the pleasure and profit his 

 communication has given me. J. Harrington Keene, 



THE NEW TROUT LAW. 



WE GIVE below the full law as passed by the Legisla 

 ture of New York and signed by the Governor about 

 April 13. It is known as the Owens bill, and makes such 

 radical changes in the old law that it should be carefully read . 

 We comment on it in our editorial columns. 



An act to amend chapter rive hundred and thirty-four of 

 the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, entitled "An 

 act for the preservation of moose, wild deer, birds, fish and 

 other game," as amended by chapter five hundred and thirty- 

 one of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty, and as 

 amended by chapter five hundred and eighty four of the 

 laws of eighteen hundred and eighty. 



Section 1. Section eighteen of said act is hereby amended 

 so as to read as follows : 



Sec. 18. No person shall at any time kill or catch, or 

 attempt to kill or catch, any speckled trout, brook trout, 

 salmon trout, or landlocked salmon, with any device save 

 that of angling with line or rod held in the hand, except in 

 Lake Ontario and the Niagara River and in waters which 

 are wholly private, and in the latter only then by 

 permission of the owner thereof: nor shall any person 

 set or draw any net or seine, or use any set line or 

 set pole in any lake, pond or stream inhabited by speckled 

 trout, brook trout or salmon trout or landlocked salmon, 

 except in the waters of Lake Ontario, but no net shall be 

 set within one mile of the Oswego River, or have on the 

 shores or waters thereof, except Lake Ontario, any net, 

 seine, setline, or other unlawful device for the taking of fish 

 except as above provided. And no person shall at anytime or 

 in any way catch or attempt to catch any speckled or brook 

 trout, or salmon trout or landlocked salmon through the 

 ice, except in Lake Ontario and the Niagara River and in 

 waters wholly private. Any person who shall oifend against 

 any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty 

 of a misdemeanor, and in addition thereto shall be liable to 

 a penalty of twenty-five dollars for any offenses against any 

 of the provisions of this section, and ten dollars additional 

 for each fish taken. All nets, seines and other devices for- 

 bidden by this section to be used are hereby declared to be 

 nuisances and contraband, and any person finding the same 

 in any place where they are forbidden to be used is author- 

 ized to destroy such contraband articles, and no action for 

 damages shall lie against him for such destruction. The 

 phrase "private waters" is hereby defined for purposes of 

 this and the next section, only to mean ponds or streams 

 fed wholly by artificial sources, or by springs existing upon 

 the same farm or tract belonging to the owner or proprietor 

 thereof, or waters brought by artificial pipes or channels 

 other than natural, into artificial ponds or reservoirs of the 

 owner or proprietor. 



Sec. 2. Section nineteen of said act is] hereby amended so 

 as to read as follows: 



Sec. 19. No person shall catch or attempt to catch, or kill 

 or expose for sale, or have in possession, after the same has 

 been caught or killed, any speckled trout, brook trout or 

 landlocked salmon save only from the first day of May to the 

 first day of September, in each year, except hi the counties 

 of Queens and Suffolk, where it shall be from the first day of 

 April to the first day of September in each year. Any per 

 son who shall at any time catch or take any California trout, 

 speckled trout, brook trout, or salmon trout, or landlocked 

 salmon from any of the waters of this State, less than six 

 inches in length, shall immediately place such trout back in 

 the waters from which it was taken, and shall use due care 

 not to kill or injure the same. Nor shall any person sell, or 

 expose for sale, any of said fish less than six inches in length. 

 No person shall at any time take or catch any speckled 

 trout, brook trout, salmon trout, or California trout from 

 any of the waters of this State for the purpose of stocking a 

 private or public pond or stream, except in the waters of 

 Lake Ontario. No person shall at any time willfully 

 molest or disturb any of the fish mentioned in this 

 section, while they are upon their natural spawning- 

 beds during the spawning season, except in the 

 waters of Lake Ontario; nor shall any person take any of 

 said fish, or any spawn or milt from any of said fish while 

 upon their natural spawning beds, in any of the waters of 

 this State (except such as are wholly private). Any person 

 violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed 

 guilty of a misdemeanor, and in addition thereto shall be 

 liable to a penalty of ten dollars for an attempt, and ten dol- 

 lars for each fish so caught, killed, exposed for sale, or had 

 in possession during the prohibited season aforesaid; a pen- 

 alty of ten dollars for each fish sold or exposed for sale of 

 less than six inches long as aforesaid; and a penalty of fifty 

 dollars for disturbing or molesting fish upon the spawning 

 beds, or taking spawn or milt therefrom. The foregoing 

 provisions are not to apply to the operations of State or pub 

 lie hatcheries, or to the artificial propagation of said fish by 

 State or public authority; nor to the taking, transportation 

 or possession of fish fry thus artificially propagated or dis- 

 tributed for stocking of waters. Owners or proprietors 

 of private hatcheries are also exempted therefrom, to 

 the extent to enable them to take fish, spawn or 

 milt in their own private waters for purposes of artificial 

 propagation, inclusive of the sale, transportation and pos- 

 session of fish-fry or spawn, thus obtained or propagated for 

 purposes of stocking waters. In all other respects these pro- 

 visions are to apply. No officer of the State, nor any person 

 shall place or deposit in any of the waters of the Adirondack 

 region of this State (so called) any fish or fish-fry, or any 

 spawn or milt, except speckled trout, brook trout, salmon 

 trout, California trout or landlocked salmon, unless the fish 

 so deposited or placed in such waters are indigenous to the 

 particular water where placed, except that non-preying or 

 non-destructive fish, such as usually constitute food for the 

 species above named, may be therein placed. Any person 



