May 7, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



291 



"hie heads." A new fiv was sent td me last week by E. 

 BpaiT, called the Alexandria fly. tied oil a No. 10 long 

 aha iik hook, with -silver body, black legs and peacock tips 

 for wings, fo end of barb, a 'good killer here. 



As 1 said before, give me the old flics, such as yellow dun, 

 May fly. Wickham's fancy, Spary's fancy, coachman, sedge 

 fly, black gnat, cow dung, alder fly, small red spinner, stone 

 fly, and small gnats of different kinds on No. 14 hooks; with 

 those flies you may depend on good luck on almost any 

 Stream. In my last, for May fly No. 3 read No. 8, and for 

 ledge fly sedge fly. B. W. B, 



HARTiroBD, Conn. 



FLY-FISHING. 



Eiliior Forest and Stream: 



So much has been said and written on Ashing with the fly, 

 that It would seem that there was uothing to add, yet how 

 many writers agree iri their rules and laWs as laid down by 

 them? 



One of the rules followed by myself for twenty-five years 

 was given me by Mr. Harry Pritcbard, and yet, after I had 

 proved its worth, and the fact that it was a rule, Harry him- 

 self, in an article on the subject published in the Forest 

 and Stream, says it is all bosh. The rule as given me by 

 htm was this ; "When I fiud the water smooth, with no 

 wind td make a ripple, I east my flies lightly upon the water, 

 biit when there is a good breeze and a strong ripple, I send 

 them into the water quick and sharp." And yei. while I 

 have proved the rule a good one on lake and stream in a 

 number of States, he at the Harlem Mere, in Central Park, 

 has proved it nil bosh. 



Dr. Henshall says in "Fishing with the Fly," page 236, 

 "The black bass will rise to the fly only in comparatively 

 shallow water, say from one to six feet in depth." Now, 

 while the rule is a good one, it is not by any means general. 

 The line dividing deep and shallow water in most of the 

 hikes in Central New York is very marked. A bank of 

 weeds by the middle of July showing above the surface de- 

 fines it. Outside the weed's, ten feet or less, the water is 

 from ten to twenty-five feet deep; inside, from six feet to 

 Shore. The bass are all taken outside of the weeds in many of 

 them, in .fact I may safely say all, where the bank of weeds 

 exists.. Experience bas taught me that black bass will be 



found in all waters where they hate been placed, near old 

 ogs, boulders, or bauks of Weeds in water from due loot to 

 twenty-five feet in depth. Some few years since:, while fish- 

 ing in the Skaneatclcs Lake, crossing a small bay, thinking 

 the water too deep for casting, I had reeled up and sat look- 

 ing at the waving grain in a field a quarter of a mile distant, 

 admiring the different shades and colors as the breeze swept 

 over it, when 1 was startled by the appearance of the top of 

 a log showing just above the surface of the water in front of 

 the boat. Calling to my companiou, who was rowing, to 

 change his course quickly, we passed some six or eight feet 

 outside of the log, while four large bass swam leisurely 

 away on the inside not six feet from the surface. Upon 

 dropping a lead over the side I found about twenty-seven 

 feet of water. Profiting by the observation, upon our re- 

 turn we halted a good distance aWay, and two bass of over 

 two pounds weight each rewarded us for our paius. Again, 

 "Uncla lleube" aud 1 spent a day upoii the larger of the 

 Tully Lakes; our catch of twenty-three small-mouthed bass 

 was nearly all taken around what we called the Rush Island, 

 in water from eight to fifteen feet deep, 



Now r for the Doctor's side. On that same day upon our 

 first tour around the lake (prospecting, as we had never 

 fished it before), we had been passing through deep water 

 between an island and the east shore. I, sitting in the bow 

 of the boat, made a cast toward shore, and while telling the 

 oarsman to head out or he would be aground, had a rise and 

 hooked a bass iu one foot of water; after landing him, I 

 arose to my feet to see why that fish was in such shallow 

 water, when I readily saw the reason; there was a sunken 

 log halt bedded in the white mail, with which the bottom of 

 thai lake is mostly covered. 



That summer I camped upon the shores of that lake for 

 two weeks, aud that log I counted ou for one or two fish 

 each day. In that two weeks I learned more about bass fish- 

 ing from the bass themselves than all my former fishing or 

 "book larnin' " had taught me. And to give to my brother 

 anglers of the Forest and Stream (if this does not get into 

 the waste basket instead of the paper) some of the traits of 

 the black bass there learned, is what incited this scrawl. 



Near the above-mentioned log, where the waters were nar- 

 rowed by a point from shore running well out toward an 

 island, I almost invariably, morning, noon, or night, struck 

 a fish, A clear white bottom, no log or obstruction of any 

 kind to draw them, the why was a mystery to me until the 

 morning I broke camp, when at the earnest solicitation of 

 my boy I went with him "above the point" to take a final 

 bath. After wading out until the water was waist deep, I 

 struck out. Well, if you could have heard me snort and my 

 boy laugh, to see me "strike in" again, it would have caused 

 you to smile. I had solved the "why" the bass were found 

 tiiere. There was about as cold a spring of water bubbling 

 up there as I care to drink from in a warm day, much colder 

 than I care to swim in again. 



Shall the flies be kept on the surface or allowed to sink 

 beneath ? has been well argued. Here is what a bass in that 

 lake told me. Being alone one day in the boat, the wind 

 blowing quite strong from the south, I swung under the lee 

 of a point on the west side of the lake. The shore was 

 densely wooded, on a steep hillside, the slope of which was 

 continued into the lake, so that ten feet from shore there 

 ■was at least ten feet of water. The bottom was interlaced 

 with old logs and trees that had lain there for years water- 

 logged, and covered with the marly deposit of the bottom- 

 white spectres made to assume fanciful shapes by the heavy 

 ripple of the water and the shadows cast by the swinging 

 boughs above. With no thought of a fish in that clear water 

 where the bottom was as plainly visible as the trees on shore, 

 I was simply playing my flies to keep them front sinking to 

 the logs below, when my rod was nearly perpendicular and 

 my line slack, in no position to strike a fish, out from be- 

 neath my boat darted a bass. With really no thought that 

 it would take a fly under the situation, yet to see what it 

 would do, I recovered and cast again, dropping my rod well 

 down. As I recovered the line the fish darted under the boat 

 again, hut as the flies landed upon the water it turned toward 

 them. Ah, could you have seen that fellow; he swam leis- 

 urely toward them but about three feet to the right, no mo- 

 tion of the body indicating his intention, but his eyes! Talk 

 of the brilliancy of diamonds; they are nowhere. I did not 

 move the rod while the flies slowly sank, and Mr. Bass as 

 slowly swam in shore. The upper fly on my leader was a 

 grizzly king. Every particle of the wings and hackle was 



floating separately, and the green body glinting beneath. 

 What a sight to see the fish and lure slowly approaching, 

 As they arrived abreast of each other, I drew the flieswitk 

 a quick movement about six inches toward me, when like a 

 flash the bass sprang upon his prey and inclosed it with his 

 capacious jaws. Not an inch beyond, stopping the moment 

 he took the fly, nothing but sight to tell me lie had the fly, 

 1 struck. The hook was well down, caught in the root of 

 his tongue. War? Well, that is just the word; he bound 

 to get under some of those logs, and I bound that he should 

 not, Ordinarily to feel the struggles of the lordly bass is 

 joy enough for any angler, but to not only feel but see him 

 in all his strength dart, dive, spring to the surface, and with 

 mouth wide open try to shake the barb that holds him pris- 

 oner from its firm seat, is the experience of but once in a 

 lifetime, and is indescribable. 



Now, brother angler, from the method of that fellow's 

 springing upon that fly and giving me no intimation that he 

 had it, taught me a lesson in casting for bass that has since 

 served me Well, Who has not often, when casting from a 

 boat, if casting abreast as the boat passed on, the line curving 

 out as the flies drop astern, seen his line straighten for a 

 moment as though caught upon a weed and then assume its 

 old motion of quietly floating astern V Strike, and my word 

 for it, you will fiud a bass on your fly. In casting, let your 

 flies sink for a moment before you begin to draw; then with 

 simply the contraction of the muscles of the hand grasping 

 the rod, and the raising of the tip correspondingly, you 

 slowly draw the flies toward you. That Tully Lake bass 

 taught me that the bass, when sure of his prey, is like a cat; 

 he loves to hold his desire in check and enjoy iu anticipation 

 his food. So, when the flies are under the water he is sure 

 of them, and is in no hurry to strike. 



One of the most successful bass fishermen on Onondaga 

 Lake seldom or never casts his flies, but by the aid of one or 

 more "B" shot on his leader sinks his flies, and trolls them 

 seventy-five feet astern, using a fly-rod. He gets all the play 

 out of 'his fish and saves himself the fatigue of casting, and 

 he gets his fish. 



In fishing from a boat, is it best to sit down or stand up? 

 If you are thoroughly familiar with all of the shoals, rocks 

 and sunken logs, sit down and take it easy; if not, stand up 

 and your eye will have in sight a greater expanse of ground 

 than your line can cover, rocks, logs and bars, invisible to 

 the eye when sitting, can then be seen, and your flies can be 

 placed with certainty on the spot that, were you sitting, can 

 at best be guessed at. Methinks I hear the tyro in fly-fishing 

 say, "When the old handsdiffer so iu their judgmeutof how 

 to catch the various fish that will rise to the fly, liow is the 

 beginner to he guided?'' Learn from the fish, boys. Study 

 their habits, tastes, etc., learn the various forms the bottoms 

 of your streams and lakes possess. Then with the light you 

 have, study and get more, and rest assured none of us know 

 it all, for life is too short to learn it. Give the flsh credit 

 for possessing some sense, else will you wake up some fine 

 morning and realize that instead of the fish being fouls, the 

 fool has been at the other end of the rod. Ika Wood. 



Albany, N. Y., May 1. 



TROUT1NG IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



Editor Fond and Stream: 



The warm weather has started our fly -fishermen, and I am 

 hearing daily of good catches. I have noticed that some 

 papers which devote a part of their columns to angling have 

 frequently stated that we have no fly-fishing iu Pennsylvania. 

 The following letter received by me this A. M. from a friend 

 who is on the ground, goes to show the trout are not all 

 gone yet, and fly-fishing proper is yet to be had iu our State; 



"I was out fishing one day last week — made a full day — 

 and filled my creel with good-sized trout. The day was 

 warm, aud the fish took the fly with avidity. There, were 

 three of us in the party, two bait-fishermen and myself, who 

 you know have not carried a worm or other tban artificial fly 

 to a stream for years. We left home about 3 o'clock A. M. , 

 and drove some twelve miles over one of the w T orst roads you 

 ever saw to the foot of the Pocono Mountains, reaching our 

 destination a little after sunrise. The stream was small and 

 so completely overgrown that it was not possible to cast a 

 fly without flrst clearing a place for that purpose. This I 

 did at one or two likely -looking holes, and went from one to 

 the other catching a few at each as often as I returned to 

 them ; but this soon became monotonous, the fish were small, 

 and I threw back all that were not badly injured by remov- 

 ing the hook. It was just the kind of fishing my friends en- 

 joyed, however, and I left them to look for an old dam some 

 two miles down stream. I found it after a long, tedious 

 walk; but it was not much of a dam, being filled up with 

 mud and dead leaves, and not over a foot or so in depth, not 

 a very likely place to find big trout. To make the matter 

 still worse, there was not wind enough to cause a ripple on 

 the surface of the pond. After taking a few small ones at 

 the head of this slack water, I moved down stream to ground 

 that I had been over before years ago. I found a dam there 

 and some cleared land, fished through the meadow down to 

 a farmhouse, taking a few fish as I went; but the dam pre- 

 sented no better appearance than the pool above, it was as 

 smooth as glass, not a breath of air to create a ripple. 



"I made my peace with the owner of the clam, drank not 

 less than a quart of good fresh milk, which his wife brought 

 from the spring house, lit a cigar and sat down to chat with 

 them and wait for a breeze. It came much sooner than I 

 expected, but only struck one part of the dam and was gone 

 before 1 could get there. I sat down among the black alders 

 that fined the bank to wait another puff of wind; it came in 

 a few minutes, but there did not appear any trout in that 

 part of the dam. Some time during the afternoon the wind 

 sprang up and ruffled the whole surface; this gave me a 

 chance to select my own position to cast from. I had pre- 

 viously gone all around it and taken in the position of 

 things — knew exactly where the channel ran and where the 

 shoal places were — my first rise was a failure, but I suceeded 

 in taking him at the next,not a very large fish (almost f inches 

 long) but I had out about forty feet of line when he struck 

 and gave me a lively fight before the landing net was put 

 under him, more than once he jumped clear out of the 

 water and shook himself like a big Newfoundland dog, then 

 he went to the bottom and turned up the mud, tried all kinds 

 of dodges, but came to grief at last. I pitied him and had a 

 mind to put him back in the water, he was such a plucky 

 little fellow. 



"I took several larger ones during the evening. One big, 

 broad fellow, that measured a full foot, was a perfect lunk 

 head, had no fight in him, and gave right up after the first 

 struggle. I was surprised at this, but the matter was ex- 

 plained when I came to unhook. I found he had a great 

 bait hook half way down his throat, with three inches of 

 snood fast to it. He had all the vim taken out of him, but 



could not resist the tempting early fly, as he supposed. I 

 took another that had one of' my flies in his mouth. He hit 

 first early in the afternoon and again in the evening. When 

 fish do that they are hungry. The dam had not been fished 

 with a fly this spring, and while I enjoyed the sport all alone, 

 I kept wishing for my friends, wlio were to join me wheu 

 they had enough worm-fishing. 



'"'They came along a little after sundown with something 

 over a hundred small trout, weighing not much more than ' 

 half as much as my catch. I caught three or four good fish 

 after they came, just to show them how it was done; but 

 my creel was so full they would not go in, and we concluded 

 to* start home, all well satisfied with the day's sport — they 

 to think they had more heads and tails than I, and I that 

 one fish at the end of forty or fifty feet of line, big enough 

 to fight for his life, was worth more to me than the whole of 

 theirs." Homo. 



THE MOST KILLING FLY. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The interesting and instructive discussion on the most kill- 

 ing fly was started by a question asked by "Kokomo." He 

 had reference to the best fly for a true trout — the Rocky 

 Mountain trout (Salmo vin/iitalls). Some of your correspond- 

 ents seem to have lost sight of this, and their articles are 

 about the best fly for a fish that is not a true trout, but only 

 a charr, the so-called brook trout of the East {Salvelinus fon- 

 tuialis). A recent letter on the subject stated that the ma- 

 jority had mentioned the red ibis as the best fly. This is an 

 error. Nothing of the kind was written by those who re- 

 ferred to the best flies for Rocky Mountaiu trout. I notice 

 that many think it is impossible to state which is the most 

 killing fly. This is their opinion, unbacked up with any 

 statistics. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I hold that a man who has kept no record 

 of flies used can not give as good testimony as the man who 

 has kept such a record carefully, provided the latter has 

 fished as much, and over as extensive a country, as the 

 former. There is some difference between putting down, 

 year after year in black and white, the fly that has caught 

 the trout, and only generalizing from memory about the best 

 fly. Such a record I have, extending for five years. I first 

 caught the Rocky Mountain trout twelve years ago, and have 

 caught it from the Wind River country, in Northwestern 

 Wyoming, to the southern part of New Mexico, a stretch of 

 country over eight hundred miles long; and I think this does 

 entitle me to speak more positively than those who have only 

 general ideas of the subject. Especial care was taken to 

 guard against using too much a favorite fly because it was a 

 good one ; and often when trout were rising well to a fly it 

 was changed to see how they would act with others. Pains 

 were taken to try all flies used equally, with favor shown 

 none. 



Now for results. The red ibis so well spoken of by some 

 for the so-called brook trout of the East, caught during 

 the.se five years only eleven-hundredths of one per cent, of 

 the trout caught. I will repeat again that the coachman is 

 by far the best fly for the Rocky Mountain trout, fifty-three 

 per cent, being caught by the coachman. The uext best fly, 

 the black hackle with peacock body, falling to fourteen per 

 cent. The next fly, the black prince, thirteen per cent. The 

 June spinner, four per cent. ; the silver black, three and a 

 half per cent. ; the March brown about the same, and so on 

 down a long fist. 



Some popular Eastern flies caught as follows: Red hackle, 

 three-fourths of one per cent. ; stone, one-third of one per 

 cent. ; claret, one-tenth of one per cent. The gold spinner 

 caught none at all, green drake none. As your correspond- 

 ent "''Sport" wrote, the Rocky Mountain trout seem to pre- 

 fer a peacock-bodied fly to the same fly without the peacock 

 body. For instance, black hackle with peacock body, four- 

 teen per cent.; black hackle with black body, seven-tenths 

 of one per cent. ; gray hackle with peacock body, three per 

 cent. ; gray hackle with red body, four-tenths of one per 

 cent. The brown hackle with peacock body caught nearly 

 three times as many as the brown hackles with colored 

 bodies. A good fly is a hackle made from the hairs out of 

 the tail of a deer.' I have also found it very good for the 

 big-mouth black bass of the Gulf States. But for bass, the 

 addition of a red body adds to its attractiveness. On the 

 contrary, the Rocky Mountain trout do not like red in any 

 quantity in a fly, I have noticed. The only exception of red 

 in a good fly is 'in the case of the black prince, which has a 

 red tail. The grizzly king, which also has a red tail, was 

 way down on the list. Cyrtonyx. 



Foht Stanton, New Mexico. 



MAINE TROUT. 



MAY 1 gives everybody the right to catch trout in Maine, 

 but the best lakes and ponds are still ice-bound with 

 ice so rotten that the fish are now safe from the ice fishermen. 

 Would that it had been so all the spring. But, unwisely 

 enough it seems to the sportsman who only hopes for a few 

 days each year on the Maine waters with rod and fly, special 

 laws allow inhabitants of the State to fish through the ice 

 for trout for their own use, beginning March 1. Such spe- 

 cial laws are bad— they have worked very badly this year if 

 accounts are true. One local paper, which pretends to work 

 for the interest of its locality in the way of advertising it as 

 a sporting resort, emblazons the story that 500 trout were 

 taken in one day by a party of three from one of these 

 ponds where the law permits of such fishing after March 1. 

 The paper asks : "How is this for a starter?" Butchery! — 

 that is the word. The editor of that country paper does not 

 appreciate the situation. His item makes one of the best of 

 reasons why anglers whom he desires should come later will 

 avoid his locality. He has let out the fact that the worst 

 sort of pot-fishermen are stripping the ponds of North 

 Franklin county. 



I learn that there has been too much of this ice fishing 

 done iu that country this spring. Tuft's Pond, in the town 

 of Kin afield, has been very remarkable for its trout. I shall 

 never forget the 10th day of May, 1873, spent on its waters. 

 The wind blew a stiff breeze from the northwest. Our boat 

 was old and leaky. We began with bait— Sim and I— but the 

 trout actually took the bait before it touched the water so 

 freely that a red ibis or two, which we happened to have, were 

 hitched to our lines. It was too early to think of fly-fishing 

 in those waters, but they rose nevertheless, and to the ex- 

 tent that our flies were quickly worn out and broken. Pieces 

 of red flannel were substituted by the ingenuity of Sim, who 

 was one of the best fishermen I ever knew. These worked 

 just as well. Toward uight our boat, half full of water, 

 began to be alive with trout from a quarter to a half a pound. 

 We camped that night, as we had done the night before, in 

 a ' 'lean-to" on the shore of the pond. The next morning we 



