i4S 
Joseph Northrup, State Fish and Game Protector, Al- 
iexandHa Bay, N. Y., were communicated with he would 
arrange witli some one to collect a quantity of the flies 
during the flight, and ship them to any point within 
twenty-four hours of Alexandria Bay. To ship the flies 
cardboard boxes must be provided and perches arranged 
for the flies inside. This may be done by sewing through 
and through the box with a sail needle and Berlin wool, 
so that the strands of wool will be about 2in. apart in 
levery direction. Thousands of flies can be collected in 
■A single CA^ening by two or three energetic boys. I told 
in these notes last year how the flies rise by millions 
every evening, filling the electric light globes and gath- 
ering in clouds wherever there is a light. Once the flies 
are established, the larvae will furnish food for the trout 
during the six months the water is covered with ice, and 
tlie flies will furnish surface food during the rise. I have 
seen the May fly rising in remote lakes in Canada during 
the hionth of September, but nowhere have I seen them 
in such quantities as on the St. Lawrence. Last season 
too I mentioned a flight of caddis flies on the St. Law- 
rence which I observed one evening as I was leaving 
Montreal; so the river is rich in May and caddis flies. 
**Dry Fly Entomology." 
The preceding note was written, when I put down my 
pen, lighted a pipe, and walked into an adjoining room, 
and there on a table my' eyes fell upon a book which 
Mr. Halford sent me last summer, bearing the title I 
have used for the head of this note. When I received it 
I intended to write a notice of it, but being much away 
from home, it escaped me in the brief visits that I made 
to my writing table. For some reason I neglected to 
make a mernorandum of it on my "Angling Notes" 
sticker, and it had passed completely out of my mind 
until, haying written of May and caddis flies, it seemed 
to force itself upon my notice in a manner that may be 
set dowii as a coincidence. I was fairly startled when 
the gilt title of the book appeared to me in the gas light, 
because on several occasions recently I have been dis- 
cussing coincidences and "mind telepraphy," as I be- 
lieve Mark Twain calls it, with a friend who has a record 
in this particular line. The book having brought itself 
to my attention, I am in duty bound to write something 
about it now, although I had put down my pen for the 
evening, intending to leave home on the first train to- 
morrow morning. Let me premise, however, that it 
is always a pleasure to write of Mr. Halford's books; but 
I do not like to have them startle me and prick my 
conscience at the same time. 
Mr. Halford's latest book, "Dry Fly Entomology," is 
the natural sequence of his former works upon "Floating 
FHes and How to Dress Them" and "Dry Fly-Fishing 
in Theory and Practice," as they cleared the way for and 
rather made the last volume necessary to all who practice 
the highest style of fly-fishing. The title page describes 
the book as "a brief description of leading types of nat- 
ural insects serving as food for trout and grayling, with 
100 best patterns of floating fli es and the various meth- 
ods of dressing them." The flies used in dry fly-fishing 
are almost without exception imitations of natural in- 
sects, and in the case of winged flies by far the greater 
proportion have upright wings, or "cocked-up" wings, 
which distinguish them from flat-winged flies, of which 
Mr. Halford mentions not to exceed half a dozen spe- 
cificall3^ while the hackles, or flies without wings, are 
more numerous. The fact that in dry fly-fishing the fly 
is cast and permitted to float on the surface of a slow- 
moving stream where the trout have an opportunity to 
examine it, and perhaps compare it with the real fly that 
it is supposed to represent, makes it necessary that the 
flies must represent nature as closely as the fingers and 
brain of the fly dresser can fashion them from feathers, 
silk and tinsel. Any old fly will not do in this method 
of fishing, as in wet fly-fishing, when the fly is drawn 
through the water beneath the surface and the fish takes 
it, perhaps because it has the appearance of life and can 
be rejected if it does not suit its- fancy or palate after 
a trial. 
The dry fly must be fashioned to deceive the very elect 
of educated trout when the real thing is floating on the 
water. The loo patterns of flies, in colors, magnified, 
and natural size, would alone be worth the price of the 
book to any fl^^-fisherman, if it were not for the descrip- 
tions and illustrations of the natural insects, and I turn 
to the latter briefly because the colored plates speak for 
themselves. 
Almost at once I find this interesting statement con- 
cerning the caddis worm: "Soon after they are born 
the larvae leave the jelly-like mass in which the eggs 
were enveloped, and at once commence case making. 
It may here be remarked that the larvae in this order are 
vegetable feeders, living on leaves and shoots of plants, 
such as water celery, water crowfoot, etc. They do not, 
however, despise larva; of other aquatic insects, whether 
those of the smaller ephemeridje, or gnats and other 
diptera, or even those of their own genera, which before 
devouring they tear from their cases." " Had I read this 
book thoroughly, as I should have done when it was 
received, I would not have speculated so long as I did 
as to what had become of the caddis worms in my bottle 
when at roll call only one responded where there should 
have been four or five. I did not know that they were 
other than vegetable feeders until this evening I read 
what I have quoted from this book. 
The author says that an examination of the May fly 
shows that the average number of eggs laid is 6,500, and 
that the larval and nymphal stages of the May fly last cer- 
tainly two, and perhaps three, years. Mr. Halford ap- 
plies the term nymph to that stage when rudiments of 
wings become visible. Eggs of the May fly hatched in 
captivity produced larvje on Aug. 15, the eggs having 
been laid on June 9, but it is thought that temperature 
conditions may determine the period, as they are known 
to hatch on the River Test in three weeks instead of ten, 
as in London in captivity. 
It is very difficult to select from this part of the book 
matter to be quoted, for every portion of it should be 
read by fly-fishermen, no matter whether they cast the 
fly dry or wet. The habits of the different insects are 
given, and they are illustrated on finely drawn blocks. 
May fishermen have cast duns, spinners, olives^ with vari- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
ous pre- or suffixes, without knowing much about why 
they were so named; but Mr. Halford gives every one an 
opportunity to know all about them, and how they look 
at different stages of development; and a man who un- 
derstands this part of the book will turn to the 100 pat- 
terns of counterfeits of the insects with more interest, 
and he will better understand how and when to use them 
in fly-fishing. 
Flies on or under the Surface. 
In the language of the play-bill, four days are supposed 
to have elapsed between the last note and this one, and 
as a matter of fact they have elapsed. Upon my re- 
turn home I find a letter in my mail which I desire to 
quote from, and properly it fits in just here. Mr. A. St. 
J. Newberry writes me from Cleveland, O., as follows: 
"Some time ago I read in Forkst and Stream a dis- 
cussion from your pen as to whether big trout, say 2lbs, 
or over, ever or often took a fly on the surface, and 
understand you to say that your experience had shown 
that trout of such size rarely, if ever, took a floating fly, 
while they were readily tempted by a sunken one." 
What I wrote of was wet fly-fishing, not dry fly-fishing, 
in which style the fly is taken while it is actually floating 
on the surface of the water. Now I will continue with 
the letter: 
"Of late years I have done considerable fishing along 
Lake Superior, especially at Munising Bay, and in waters 
where the trout run large, but which are so clear, cold 
and bracing that the big fellows seem to retain, to a 
surprising degree, the dash and snap which is so char- 
acteristic of small fish in our Eastern waters. At 
Miuiising my good catches have averaged over ilb. 
and contained many fish of 2 and 3lbs. each. The water 
is very clear and the trout shy, and a long line must be 
cast to make success possible. 
"Of course, with a long cast and two or three large flies. 
THE FLORIDA SHACK. 
(U. S. Cartridge Co.) 
Photo by Boston Camera Exchange. 
some of the flies must be beneath the surface until the 
line is pretty well recovered and the rod consequently 
about vertical, when I have found all three flies show. 
The upper fly, however, has seemed rarely, if ever, 
to go out of sight, and certainly comes to the top as 
soon as trailing the cast has fairly begun. Now in all 
my fishing in this locality I have found the upper fly 
takes the very great majority of fish, even when all the 
flies on the leader were of the same kind and size. This 
predominance was always great, and on the day in last 
August when 'My Best Catch," reported in Forest and 
Stream, was made, out of thirtj^-one fish twenty-nine 
took the upper fly. On that day I had only two flies, 
aiid they were both dark Montreal, No. 4 hooks, exactly 
alike. The catch included four fish, of about 3lbs. each, 
and quite a number of 2lbs. or dver. 
"Every one of these fish went well out of the water on 
his rise, but seemed to me not to rush at the first fall 
of the cast. I thought the drop of the flies attracted 
their attention, but that they did not start after them 
until their motion simulated straggling insects, and then 
they went for the one that made the most disturbance, 
which of course would be the dropper, trailing on the 
surface. 
"When these fish- have risen sparely, or not at all, I 
have often taken them by making a long cast and letting 
the flies sink well down; then jerk slightly, rest, reel in 
a little hue, rest, jerk again, and so on; and I confess 
that trout so taken averaged very large. But there is 
comparatiyely little fun in trout fishing if you take away 
the splendid start and shock to the nerves as a great fish 
explodes out of the still water. Such fishing is the milk 
without the cream. 
"I always hesitate to form theories about fishing, or 
anything else, for that matter, for one's experience can 
at best only be very partial; but I think it correct to 
say that in such cold and clear waters, where trout nor- 
mally are of large average size, when really hungry a 
2lb. trout will not only take a fly on the surface, but 
prefers it to the same fly entirely immersed. Doubtless 
under less favorable conditions tlie reverse may be the 
case." 
The letter I have quoted is a very interesting one, and 
the writer of it is an observant man. When I said that I 
took m}'' large trout this season on flies sunk below 
the surface, I did not mean that I deliberately sank them 
before I began to draw them to recover for another cast. 
This I have frequentlj'- done in black bass fishing. I im- 
agine that bj' fishing side by side with Mr. Newberry 
I could better make clear to him what I mean by flies 
beneath the surface, for my idea is that many men think 
and believe they are fishing on the surface when really 
their flies are beneath it; but Mr. Newberry must not 
understand that this refers to him. With flies what I 
call just beneath the surface the trout in rising make 
everything jingle in a way to make the fisherman's hair 
curl. At another time I will say a little more on this 
subject. A. N. Cheney. 
[March 26, 1898. 
Grasshoppers Did It* 
Editor Potest and Stream: 
Aberdeen, in your issue of Feb. 5, seems to doubt 
the statement of a writer in the New York Sun, that the 
trout is a sly and wary bird, and appeals to some of your 
correspondents for more light. 
He quotes: "The angler who moves along the banks 
of a stream, keeping close to the water, is bound to come 
home with an empty basket. Trout are as wary as snipe, 
and the sight of a fisherman or any other man sends 
them to cover with lightning-like rapidity." 
^ Now I niodestly admit that I can't fish worth a cent. 
Even that ingenious and inexhaustible writer on fishes 
and things, Fred Mather, could beat me. I used to catch 
trout, but not in a scientific and honorable way; and 
for the benefit of Aberdeen I'll relate a bit of my ex- 
perience: 
I'm now an oldster, but when I was a youngster I 
spent a summer at a quaint and beautiful little village 
nestled down among the hills of Maine, and .a small 
stream that rippled through it harbored trout, otherwise 
"speckled beauties." Far be it from me to go for the 
innocent things with artificial flies, "with intent to de- 
ceive." I fed them with genuine grasshoppers, because 
I believe in doing as Rome does when I'm in Rome. The 
boys came in with strings of little trout, but they never 
had a large one, and being only covetous of that kind 
I thought this matter over and concluded that there 
must be some and I must have them; so I set about it. 
If an angler goes carelessly along the elge of a brook 
and shows himself to its tenants, the big ones will find 
a place to hide and the biggest grasshopper cannot tempt 
him to come out; but the little fellows are ready to 
grab it. As I knew all that, I would cast an eye ahead, 
and when I saw a place where I thought a respectable - 
trout could hide I would slip silently up, and without 
showing myself let my bait down cautiously and slowly 
over the bank, and the largest fish would be the first to 
take it. I did not do that kind of fishing for sport, but 
my companion and I wanted a couple of trout for break- 
fast every morning, and the same for supper; and as 
they were from 10 to I2in. long, two were all I wanted 
at a time. 
I took one trip of half a mile down the brook and 
came back with half a dozen; and as I carried them 
through the village I was surrounded, and every one 
wanted to know where I got them. They said they never 
saw such trout caught about their place before. So I 
got the repittation of being a wonderful trouter. They 
said all that was needed was a heavy dew, and I could 
catch them anywhere on the lawn. 
I remember being on the Conway meadows once upon 
a time, and standing on a bridge I enjoyed the futile 
efforts of two men to induce two fine trout to take the 
tempting bait they trailed before them. Their patience 
at last gave out, and they left with cuss words oozing 
from their mouths, while I was wearing a smile that 
reached across my face. I walked up to the house for 
my rod, and when I returned to the bridge I hitched 
a grasshopper to my hook, and without looking over I 
dropped it slowly down, and before it reached the water 
I heard a splash as one of them jumped up out of the 
water for it; and after letting it drop a few inches further 
he caught it, and I lifted him out. I waited a few min- 
utes for the other one to lay aside his suspicions, and 
then treated him in the same wicked way. Didymus. 
,, ,St. Augustine, March T. 
*_ 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Chicago, 111., March 19. — The membership of the 
newly organized Milwaukee Rod and Reel Club, men- 
tioned earlier, is at this date reported to be as follows: 
John P. Murphy, Dr. R. G. Richter, Benjamin M. Weil. 
Benjamin Skidmore, Jr., H. C. Reed, W. E. Furlong, 
W. H. Momsen, Francis Bloodgood, Jr., Joseph B. Doe, 
S. Caro, G. B. Grossman, John D. McLeod, W. H. Mil- 
ler, Edward Voss, Benjamin Sivyer and Frank Williams. 
The election of officers will be held March 23 at the 
Hotel Pfister, and a president, vice-president, secretary 
and treasurer and five directors installed. 
In Milwaukee, Ripon, Fond du Lac, Appleton, Berlin 
and many other Wisconsin towns there is being passed 
about a letter of agreement which touches upon a singu- 
lar point. The agreement, which is receiving many sig- 
natures, reads as follows: "The undersigned, piscatori- 
ally inclined, each hereby mutually agrees to and with 
each other for the purpose of encouraging true sport 
and to discourage so-called 'pot hunting,' that he will 
not during the year 1898, directly or indirectly, buy trout, 
nor directly or indirectly hire any person to catch trout 
for him." This odd movement is really a good one, and 
one of worthy sportsmanship. It is aimed against the 
practice, all too common, of anglers who go Oitt for a 
limited time, and who, meeting bad success, hire local 
men to fish for them, or who purchase fish of others who 
have them already caught. This is in no sense sport, and 
it is practically carrying the game and fish market into 
the woods, to say nothing of its being very destructive 
of the fish. On many trout streams the local market 
fishers make such a close sweep of the waters in order 
to sell the fish to the anglers that the anglers find none 
left for themselves. They are beginning rightly to argue 
that if no one bought any trout there would be more 
trout left for sportsmanlike taking. Is it possible we 
are to see no more of the time-honored picture of the 
small boy with the pin hook and the string of trout 
which he is ready to sell? 
Impertinent. 
It was a bit impertinent of a certain band of market 
fishermen at Quincy, 111., the home of Supt. Bartlett, of 
the Fish Commission, to explode a lot of dynamite under 
the ice on the river front and kill a ton of fish. I hope 
they will not blow up the new fish boat of the Com- 
mission. Methinks this is the sort of "'first offense" 
which will need a strong alibi. But if they were only 
killing some of Dr. Bartlett's carp,, there are extenuating 
circumstances. 
E. Hough. 
1206 BoYCE Building, Chicago, HI. 
