Feb. i8, 1899.] 
FORjiST AND STREAM. 
181 
one swan. He exhibited maps showing the closed and 
open seasons for game in the different States. The dan- 
ger to ducks is that the laws only protect them in those 
States where they breed. Our open season in the Dis- 
trict, he said, is too long. The markets here are open 
to the gunners of other States when the law in those 
States is up and the season closed. The spring shooting 
about Washington^ at least, should be curtailed. 
The secretary and treasurer having referred to tlie de- 
pleted condition of tlie treasury, a motion was. made after 
the regular reports had been read to increase the dues. 
Such a motion had been made at a previous meeting, and 
came up as unfinished business. There was not a dis- 
senting vote against the motion, and the dues of the as- 
sociation hereafter will be $2 per annum. The wish was 
expressed during the discussion that every member of 
the association promptly remit his dues. There is con- 
siderable work on hand and funds are needed. 
The nominating committee presented the nominations 
for the officers of the association during the year, and, 
having been presented, these were voted upon, with the 
following result: 
Robley D. Evans, President; James F. Hood, Vice- 
President; Dr. W. P. Young, Secretary-Treasurer, and 
Richard Sylvester, Warden, together with an Executive 
Committee consisting of Walter S. Harban, Chairman; 
Frank B. Curtis, Jas. M, Green, Joseph H. Hunter, 
Charles H. Laird, Harrison Dingman, Jesse Middlcton, 
■ Frederick B. McGuire, Rudolph Kauffmann. George L. 
Nicholson, Isaac W. Sharpe, Henry Talbot, Gabriel Ed- 
monston, Dr. Charles H. Miller and Col. Wright Rives. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST 
Japanese Fly-Fisfaing. 
Chicago, III., Feb, 2. — In the issue of Forest ano 
Stream for May 24, i8g8, I printed what I have always 
thought the most interesting piece of sporting news 1 ever 
came across in my work for the Fore,st and Stream. 
This was a description of tlie unique fly-fisbing method 
practiced by a Chicago man by the name of Edward 
Taylor, with whom I fished on the Prairie River of 
Wisconsin. This method was so utterly at variance with 
all the centuries-old canons of fly-fishing, albeit so ex- 
tremely successful, that it seemed' like absolute heresy to 
offer it. Perhaps some of tlie readers of the paper con- 
sidered the matter sensational or unauthentic. It was 
neither, but far inside the facts. Rather to my surprise, the 
.story was passed by without much comment, possibly be- 
cause readers did not like to change so suddenly their 
cherished traditions on fly-fishing. The method men- 
tioned was not the old doctrine of "long and light," but 
the absurd one of "short and heavy" fishing with the fly. 
By tliis means Mr. Taj^Ior always takes more large fish 
than the best practicers of the old ways of fishing, as I was 
well satisfied to say after what I saw of his work. A 
few persons since then have written me asking for fuller 
information about the matter, ^vhich I have tried to give 
from time to time, as I thought the matter a most curious 
discover}'. 
The Forest and Stream story, oddly enough, found its 
most interested readers far to the west of here, across the 
Pacific Ocean in the Land of the Chrysanthemum, as per- 
haps I indicated in my mention last week of the visit of 
Mr. J. O. Averill, an American gentleman living at 
Yokohama, Japan, and now in this country on a visit. 
At the time-of his call at this office, Mr. Averill (I trust 
he_ will forgive me for making known his name openly in 
this way; I do it for sake of the Forest and Stream 
readers, who will want to know him) promised to write 
me an account of the Japanese way of fishing, which he 
found very similar to that which he had seen described in 
the story in Forest and Stream last May. True to his 
word, Mr. Averill has been so kind as to do this, and I 
shall offer below, with his permission, the text of what I 
consider one of the most remarkable communications on 
novel sporting methods that it has ever been my fortune 
to see. I am sure that the Forest and Stream family will 
see, this time, that the news from Wisconsin was authen- 
tic and accurate, as well as singular, and I know they 
will be surprised and delighted as much as I am my- 
self at noting this curious and interesting confirmation 
which comes for it all the way from the far-off Island 
of Japan. The theory which Mr. Averill advances as to 
the appearance of the insect while in motion is one 
so simple and probable that it is odd that no one has 
ever yet advanced it, yet no one seems to have reflected 
that the wings of an insect while in motion do not look 
like a stationary chip or block, but like a filmy and inde- 
finite haze, similar to the effect created by the blades of 
an electric fan. I have said that Mr. Taylor always cut 
off more than two-thirds the hackle from his fly. The 
Japanese fisher is yet bolder and yet nearer to the truth 
in his methods. The fly which Mr. Averill sends me is of 
very thin hackle, the beards standing out all around 
the shank, and not up and down stiffly as our American 
fly-tyers make them. The hook itself is very odd, bent 
down at the curve at almost a right angle, and coming 
up with the effect of an angular, center-draught sproat, as 
though some ignorant artisan had tried to imitate the 
sproat. Yet the Japanese angler was not clumsy or 
ignorant. He knew his wishes, and his hook artisticallj'- 
fills them. Mr. Averill in his personal letters says, "The 
hook is a terroi; for this snatching or 'snaggling.' It 
seems to dart right into the~ fish as the quick little Jap 
snaps at him as he rises. It is quick, sharp work with 
these wary trout, for they do not suck the fly in, and give 
you a show, but just make a snap and are off." 
But I am constrained to pause in the pleasant task of 
comment on these matters, and submit Mr. Averill's fine 
communication in full, it being too good for a word to be 
lost. He deserves, and will have, the thanks of many 
anglers for his news letter from the Occident, though I 
fear he leaves some of our old notions on flyrfishing a bit 
disfigured. He writes as below: 
New York, Jan. 23. — I have for some time wished to 
write you in regard to your new or '■'Taylor-made" 
method of fly-fishing ■ for trout. Business and other 
"chains" luive, however, delayed mc until this time. 
First, I want to say that I think you have given the pub- 
lic the first intimation of a very important point in fly- 
fishing. I know what a conservative party the fly- 
fishers are in many ways t but 1 am surprised at the small 
interest 3.pparently._tnanifestcd in the niethod jQi] hp.ve 
brought to light. Perhaps my own feeling as to its im- 
portance is caused by the fact that the Taylor method 
is, as nearly as I can make it out, a perfect confirmation 
of and agreement with the ancient and general Japaaese 
mode of fly-fishing. The Japanese are old hands at the 
art of fly-fishing, and as tho.se who know tliem are aware, 
very deft and skillful in the use of their hands. They 
have no close seasons; mo.st of their streams are there- 
fore fished practically every day in the year by men who 
depend for their livelihood largely on their catch with 
the fly. 
Many, if not most, of their trout stre;ims arc as clear 
as crystal; and this, in connection with tlic constant edu- 
cation of their trout by uninterrupted fishing, make their 
fish extremely shy and wary ; and should be almost 
enough to prove that whatever method they successfully 
employ under the difficult |i:on(litiona existing is a good 
and worthy method. 
Now I shall proceed to try to desxribe their method, 
and in doing so shall doubfle-s.s ratnble and be rather 
lengthy, so prepare your.9eli and use your discretion as to 
cutting and curtailing. 
I shall begin by saying that thrde of ti.s — all old resi- 
dents of Japan — finding feathered game greatly reduced 
by its constant pursuit in the small radius of twenty-five 
miles in which we foreigners are allowed the use of 
the gun near the "treaty ports," were led to go in for 
trout fishing. 
We had often, in the country districts, eaten trout in 
Japan ; had occasionally seen a Japanese fisher take one ; 
but had been led to believe that they could not often be 
caught on the artificial fly. Many fishermen, some Eng- 
lish and some American, of varying degrees of skill, had 
tried in their own way to catch trout with the fly; but 
reported, almost to a man, that it could not be done; and 
that the Japanese depended on nets for their main supply. 
Not deterred by these reports, we began a careful investi- 
gation and fiumd that, while netting and trapping are, I 
am sorry to say, much used, still a very large part of the 
catch was made by the artificial fly. Thus encouraged, we 
ventured on a trial. By some traveling we discovered 
a stream which, after a rain, grew quite discolored and 
offered conditions apparently favorable to taking trout 
in the regular niethod as practiced in England and 
America. 
One of our trio is an Englishman and a very fair fly- 
fisher, having fished with good results, as compared to 
those fishing at the same time as him.self, in the streams 
of England, Scotland and Wales. He soon began, in 
discolored water after rain, to take a few fish in the regu- 
lar wet-fly style of fishing. But to his surprise, and on 
occasion after occasion, he found that after he had 
"whipped a pool" in the most approved style without 
result, his Japanese attendant would step on the same 
rock he had left and take, in the Japanese style, several 
good fish from the water he had gone over. This occurred 
not once, but always. The unvarying result of this com- 
petition of varying methods led me, who am a novice at 
fly-fishing, to suspend my practice at the regular method, 
and holding myself open to conviction, to study and prac- 
tice the Japanese style. I followed and carefully watched 
the Japanese fishermen; and shall try to give you, from 
my observation and carefttlly made notes, a description 
and I hope an explanation of their method. 
First as to tackle : The Japanese fisher selects from a 
grove of growing bamboo a dry shoot of the straightest 
and lightest growth, trims the leaves and gets a rod 
of about 10 to 13ft. with a top tapering to the fineness 
of a small cord, and just as impossible to break at the end 
by bending as it would be to break a fishing line by simply 
bending it. This rod is fitted to a lower joint of bamboo 
about 6 to 8ft. long, chosen ,so that the upper joint fits 
snugly into the hollow end of the lower piece. This 
gives a rod of say 16 to i8ft., weighing about 7 to Qoz. 
The rod is stiff to within a short distance of the top. 
where it is as pliable as a light whip. To the upper end 
of the rod is attached a light line, usually of about three 
horsehairs, or an equal thickness of silk, some 12 to isft. 
long; to this is tied the thinnest of gut leaders about 5ft. 
long; and to this a fastened the single fly. Both gitt and 
line are light and delicate. The flies are always plain 
hackles, and only two shades are used, grayish yellow 
and reddish brown. The bodies vary greatly, and at the 
individual caprice of the tyer, who is expert at fly-tying, 
and can usually sit by the brookside and tie a fly in a 
very few minutes. 
The Japanese fly has very few bristles or hackles, and 
these are tied to stand perpendicularly to the shank of the 
book, not drooping as ours do. The appearance of the 
Japanese fly is something as here shown as compared to 
ours. 
The method of casting is to stand at the brookside or 
in the brook, and cast up and across directly at the 
hole, rock or ripple where the fisher, who knows every 
likely lurking spot, thinks the trout is lying. The cast 
is made by a quick, strong motion of the wrist and 
forearm, the rod not going back beyond the perpendicular 
and sharply brought down and forward to almost the 
horizontal ; a slight twist of the wrist prevents snapping 
the fly off. This cast shoots the line, with the fly at the 
end, straight out across the water. As the fly drops the 
tip is slightly raised so that the fly, and the fly alone, 
alights on the stream literally as quietly as the often 
talked of "thistle-down." At once the fly touches the 
water the tip of the rod is agitated quickly, but slightly 
and gradually elevated, the fly making a series of little 
jumps and struggles, so lifelike as often to be taken by the 
onlooker for a live insect. Only a few feet of water are 
covered and then the fly is quickly picked off with another 
cast to nearly the same spot. The fly is never allowed to 
sink under water, but is kept on the surface and in almost 
constant motion. The cast is repeated again and again 
at well-known or likely places, and seems to me to re- 
.semble closely Mr. Taylor's "teasing," as described by 
you. 
It is difficult to describe in words the operation of the 
fjy, and probably only an actual witnessing of it can fully 
convey the true style and the lifelike look of the strug- 
gling insect. Its leaps are very short, and it probably 
never moves above an inch at a time, and usually much 
less. This slight struggling motion is difficult if not 
impossible to convey to the fly with our rods, owing to 
their "whippiness" and pliability, extending, as it does, 
from tip to butt. The length of our trout rod also pre- 
vents the cast §Jvtending flboye 3Q to 35ft,, us the rod 
must be lifted so that no line is in the water; but with 
the Japanese tools a cast of 30 to about 40ft. can be suc- 
cessfully made. 
This roughly outlines the method. It cannot be 
mastered at the first effort, but requires much practice 
and patience, as all good methods do. 
I may say that after watching 'the successful Japanese 
fishers and then faithfully practicing, T have arrived at a 
degree of skill which (while far short, as is natural, of the 
long-practiced and really professional Japanese fishers) 
enables mc to catch not only more fish, but larger fi.sh 
than my friend who used the wet-fly method. 
Careful study and comparison of results have now led 
all of us to adopt the Japanese method, at least for the 
clear water and middle hours of the fishing day. 
We have noticed that the Japanese fly-fisher takes 
most of his fish between the hours of g and 4:30, and he 
almost invariably rolls up his line as it grows dusk. 
This seems to agree with the dry-fly fishing, which is re- 
ported as successful, largely, if not entirely, in the "middle 
hours." ' 
I think the Japanese method is superior even tothedry-fly 
style, and for the following reasons : On a bright day in 
clear water even a single link of the finest gut floating 
and turning in the moving stream is clearly visible to the 
fisherman's skilled eye. and its shadow on the white sand 
of the brook's bottom often resembles the size and con- 
tortions of a sea serpent. Tt .seems probable the trout's 
eye is at least as sharp and quick as the human eye. The 
line and gut must usually pass over the feeding fish in 
dry-fly-casting, while in the Japanese style the fly only 
touches the water and the line and gut are often (always 
when possible) pointing in a straight line from the fish 
into the air, and visible practically only in cross section 
and behind the fly; while the shadow of the line in the 
air is infinitely less than lying upon the surface sur- 
rounded by globules of the water, Avhich increase the size 
of shadow. 
As to the wet or drowned fly method, I can only say 
that in the clear water in which we fish the few finger- 
lings which, among the wary inhabitants of these con- 
stantly fished waters, are found to take the wet fly are too 
small and too few to make it worth practicing. As yet 
the smallest English midges on the finest of dry-fly gut 
have failed to deceive the feeding fish in our clear waten 
They pick out the invisible (to us) floating gnat within 
an inch of our flies, but except for a very occasional im- 
pressible fingerling, leave our daintiest lures severely 
alone. Still, we feel that in water a bit discolored and 
late in the day there may be chances for the wet or dry 
fly; but when we can, by what seems to us the most skill- 
ful and delicate of work in the clearest weather and 
water, take the largest fish the stream produces by our 
other methods even in really skillful hands fail, we 
Japanese method, while, when tried at the same time, all 
feel we have a method at least worthy of careful thought 
and practice. 
I could give instances without number of trials of the 
methods side by side. One of the most marked was wit- 
nessed by our party of three. Our English friend care- 
fully whipped a fine pool without a rise. After he fin- 
ished I, who am as yet but a duffer, stepped to the bank, cast 
some dozen times over the best part of the pool, rose, 
struck and landed the largest trout we have yet caught 
in our stream. This is but one of numerous "cases, and 
is mentioned, I suppose, largely from vanitj' — still it 
helps to support my arguments for the new method. 
Now having sketched the method, I must go into some 
theoretical considerations. 
Fir.st as to flies : I was surprised and delighted to find 
an old favorite, the "brown hackle," also the favorite 
of the Japanese. (By the way, I remember good old 
Cotton says when you are in doubt as to what fly to use, 
to fish with a dun hackle until j^ou catch a trout, "then cut 
him open, see what flies he has been eating and tic 
accordingly. Why not continue to use the good hackle 
to catch other trout?) But I digress. I only wish to 
show -what all know, the standard and long known killing 
qualities of the hackle. 
Thinking of this almost universal fly and watching the 
Japanese use it in their Ufelike way. I was led to com- 
pare its looks with the natural insect while flying: and 
I think if anyone will look at a lightly feathered hackle 
and then at the appearance of an ordinary river fly in 
motion, the great similarity will be apparent. A fly while 
flying does not look to me like Fig. i, but Hke Fig. 2; the 
wings do not appear as clear, outline.s, but as a gauzy haze 
on all sides of the body. 
I should much like to see a photograph of an insect in 
rapid flight, or with wings in rapid motion, and one of a 
\yell made hackle, tied as I have indicated the Japanese 
tie their flies. I hope some time to make these" photos. 
This theory of the fly in motion is my own, and I 
have never heard or seen it. The Japanese do not seem 
to know of it; but both they and their foreign fellow 
fishers use the hackle. 
I submit this theory for consideration. If the theol-y 
of the flying insect is correct, it is easy to see why the 
two shades (yellowish gray and reddish brown) will 
practically cover about all insects likely to be taken by 
trout. Watch the river insects while flying, and the gauzy 
halo of their buzzing wings will almost always fall into 
the two shades mentioned. (A most interesting article on 
the color sense in trout's eyes in the London Field oc- 
curs to me here, but is too lengthy to go into.) If 
this wing theory is correct the bodies only need change 
to represent about all the needful flies. The Japanese 
fish the year round with these two shades, for what T 
claim as the wing effect of the insect in flight, and their 
method evidently represents the fly alive and struggling 
to get off the water, using his wings to the utmost. 
The theory that the hackle represents the buzzing wings 
of an insect may be held to be true only while the insect 
is on the surface or above it; but who can say that the 
trout can tell, from his position, just where water ends 
and air begins; and may he not misjudge a bit or take 
even the submerged hackle for a buzzing, winged insect? 
I find one can theorize endlessly on this subject, and if 
anyone knows positively about such things, I trust to he 
enlightened. 
Please do not think I attempt to make light of the suc- 
cess of either wet or dry-fly methods. The drowned 
insect in a faint light, in discolored water, or to the vora- 
cious trout of f? ^Yild <-n' little fish.?4 stream, is 4oiibt m 
