Sept. io, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
228 
When Trout Will Not Feed. 
Mr. Chambers, in Forest and Stream, July 30, states 
that, his experience has been, there are certain times 
when trout will not feed, refusing every variety of fly 
and bait. In his communication he says, that on a 
recent occasion, although the pool on which he was 
fishing was full of trout and they were rising to the 
surface and even jumping all around his flies, not one 
would accept his lures. 
Mr. Chambers' experience in this respect is not 
unique, every angler will tell the same story; time and 
again have I been provoked beyond measure by such 
vagaries of the spotted beauties, and have wondered, 
as does Mr. Chambers, what prompted the fish to act 
in such a manner. 
On one occasion, as I was fishing Old Frogfoot, a 
reservoir pond near Wareham, Mass., the water was 
kept in continual motion by the trout rising, even leap- 
ing above the surface, apparently in play, but evidently 
not feeding at all, for I could not see that they captured 
any of the insects which were flying around. This was 
just at sunset, when trout are generally supposed to be 
feeding. Like Mr. Chambers, I tried every variety of 
fly, but none of them seemed to have any attractions; 
the trout were playing, not feeding. It was not from 
fear they declined my lures, for some of then! were 
breaking water only three or four feet from my boat. 
Barometric Influence*. 
All of us have had blank days in trout fishing for which 
we could not account, for all proper conditions, such as 
light, breeze, ripple, etc., were present; we knew the trout 
were there, and in goodly numbers, too ; they simply 
would not rise. 
I have let my boat quietly drift over the pool on such 
an occasion, and, peering down into the water, have dis- 
covered the fish lying closely together at the bottom, 
almost without moving a fin. In late years I have come 
to the conclusion that the fish are influenced in their 
movements by barometric changes, and it has seemed to 
me that when a storm is approaching, the trout settle 
down, as if awaiting its advent. 
Queer Vagaries. 
I was once fishing that magnificent pool at northeast 
Margaree, Cape Breton, known locally as Solomon's Cel- 
lar. It is without exception the very best trout pool I 
ever cast a fly upon, and such glorious fish as it contains ! 
I was busily at work on it one day, and had taken two or 
three heavy fish; they had been in rising mood, and would 
come to any fly that was put out to them. The last trout 
I landed was a silvery beauty just up from the sea, its 
weight overrunning three pounds. After that fish was 
landed, I resumed my casting, but the trout had evidently 
changed their minds, for not one would deign to notice 
my flies. The pool was about three casts in length and 
two in width, but its water was so clear I could see fish 
in it two or three rods distant from my casting place. 
Not a rise did I get, although I changed my -flies two or 
three times, and I concluded it would be better to rest the 
pool a while. My guide and I seated ourselves beneath 
the shade of a tree near-by and burned a little tobacco. 
As we were enjoying our smoke, my companion ex- 
claimed excitedly, pointing to the pool, "There's the trout, 
sir, swiniming around like a school of mackerel." I 
looked in the direction he indicated, and saw thirty or 
forty swimming in a compact body near the surface of 
the water along the edee of the pool. I watched them 
as they moved around the shore, and saw them traverse 
the entire pool in a regular, methodical way several times. 
At length, when they were at the lower end, I resumed 
my station at the upper end or inlet, and recommenced 
casting, planning to drop my fly just ahead of the school 
as it came toward me. I did so, but they paid no atten- 
tion to it whatever. Around the pool they traveled, almost 
in a compact mass, time and again, but my flies were not 
noticed. 
"I guess you've caught their leader," exclaimed my 
. guide, "and they are looking for him. They won't take 
anything now, anyway." 
Now, why those trout acted in that manner, so entirely 
different from the ordinary ways of trout, I have never 
been able to understand. They evidently were not 
anxious to escape from the pool, for if such had been 
their desire, they could easily have done so, the outlet be- 
ing free from any obstruction, and I can lay their strange 
performance to nothing but a caprice to which these fish 
are often subject. 
Jumph g Salmon Will Not Take the Fly. 
Every old salmon angler has had his days when, al- 
though the fish were jumping all around him, not one 
would accept his fly. I have had many such days, and ex- 
cessively aggravating occasions they were, too. I used to 
believe that if I hung to them patiently I could induce one 
at least to "come in out of the wet," and so I diligently 
continued to cast over them, but though they jumped all 
around me, and even splashed the water in my face as 
they dropped back into the pool, not one would respond 
to my efforts. 
A Concord River Trout. 
Boston. Aug. 29. — Editor Forest and Stream: I thought 
it might be interesting to your readers to know that a 
square-tail brook trout was caught by me in . Concord 
River. Concord, Mass.. recently measuring 15^ inches in 
length, and weighing 2^ pounds when taken from the 
water. The fish put up a good fight, and as I was not 
fishing for trout, I was quite as much surprised, probably, 
as the fish was. Mr. Wm. Ballard, of Lexington, was in 
the canoe with me. Edwin C. Stevens. 
The London Casting- Tournament. 
It should have been said that Mr. E. J. Mills, of this 
city (who, by the way, is a son of Mr. Thomas B. Mills, 
not of William Mills, as our English contemporary had 
it), did not . go to England specially to contest in the 
tournament. He was abroad for his health, and thus de- 
serves all the more credit for his pluck in taking pari 
and sustaining so well the credit of America in the 
friendly competition. 
Fish and Fishing. 
The Philology of the Ouananiche. 
In the interest of science and philological truth, it seems 
quite necessary to notice the renewed attempt to impose 
upon the credulity of the readers of some current sporting 
literature in regard to the derivation of the word 
ouananiche. I see that the old fiction of ouanan or wanan 
meaning salmon, and iche being a diminutive — hence 
ouananiche, little salmon — is again insisted upon, though 
neither ouanan nor wanan, nor anything of the kind sig- 
nifies salmon in the Montagnais language, as pretended. 
The Montagnais equivalent for salmon is ouchachoumac 
(pronounced who-sha-shoo-mac), and little salmon in this 
dialect would therefore be ouchachoumaciche. 
Dry Fly-Fishing for Trout. 
I suppose that we see and hear so little in America 
about dry fly-fishing because of the rarity of the condi- 
tions which called it into existence in the south of Eng- 
land, where it is essentially a product of the over-fished 
chalk streams, so sweetly embalmed for us in the writ- 
ings of Charles Kingsley. We have such ample oppor- 
tunities for successful trout fishing on this side of the 
Atlantic that there is small temptation for us to change 
the manner of our sport. Should our favorite stream 
become over-fished to such an extent that the trout be- 
come scarcer and shyer, we simply move away to some 
other fishing water, where the fish are more plentiful and 
less educated. Yet I doubt not that there are many partially 
abandoned trout waters near some of our large centers of 
population which would well repay the attention of the 
dry fly-fisherman, and I am quite sure, from what I saw 
an English angler do the other day in a Canadian lake, 
that there are trout in the heat of summer in many of our 
waters to be attracted and risen by the dry fly which can 
rarely be induced to take any notice of an ordinary cast. 
Two of us had been quite unsuccessfully whipping the sur- 
face of the water for over an hour, though we knew it to 
be almost a virgin lake, and our Indians assured us that 
it was full of beautiful trout, though they had only taken 
them through the ice in winter with bait. We had no 
reason to doubt their word, but if the fish were there it 
was apparent that they were not on the feed, for there 
was no sign of a rise at the insect life on the surface of 
the lake. It was suggested to our English companion 
that here was an opportunity for him to try his favorite 
sport of dry fly-fishing. He promptly explained that the 
conditions were by no means those which would call for 
its practice on English waters, but as our conversation in 
camp had largely turned upon this particular branch of 
the sport, and the Londoner had promised to seize an 
opportunity of illustrating it for us, he at once consented 
to do so. 
I suppose that almost every reader of Forest and 
Stream knows that in dry fly-fishing the very finest of 
tackle is used, with a single artificial fly made very small, 
dressed with upstanding wings, and cast with a scientific 
calculation of direction and force, the object aimed at 
being to deliver the imitation fly in the exact presentment 
of the natural insect, and in a manner that would insure 
its floating upon the stream as if it were the real thing. 
What may not be quite so generally known in regard to 
this branch of the sport is that the dry fly-fisherman in the 
old land is supposed to remain perfectly inactive, possess- 
ing his soul in patience until such time as the trout are 
seen to be visibly rising at and taking the fly sailing down 
the stream. 
The conditions at the lake to which I have reference 
were then altogether different to those usually looked for 
by the dry fly-fisher. Nevertheless success at once at- 
tended the efforts of our English friend; rather, I imagine, 
to his own astonishment, and new possibilities in summer 
angling for trout at once occurred to my mind. In less 
than an hour half a dozen splendid trout from eight 
to twelve ounces each in weight had been secured. 
While enthusiasts in the art fit themselves out with 
special rods, reels, and tackle throughout, this expense 
may well be dispensed with. Any ordinary light fly-rod 
and tackle answers the purpose, but the casting-line should 
be fine and the fly dressed upon an eyed hook, instead of 
being whipped on to a strand of gut. The latter men- 
tioned method of fastening the fly causes it to stand very 
little of the kind of casting necessary. It is requisite, in 
order to make the fly float, to dry it in the air between 
each cast, by making several sharp false casts in the air, 
and if this is done with flies fastened on fine gut in the 
old way, it frequently happens that the fly is flicked off. 
Most dry fly-fishermen find that they can considerably 
reduce the amount of beating the air which would other- 
wise be required for drying the fly, by anointing it with 
odorless petroleum or coal oil, all that is necessary of it 
being a touch of the camel's hair brush on hackle and 
wings. A couple of casts in the air. will then suffice for 
drying the fly. With this precaution, and a properly tied 
fly, it is astonishing how comparatively easy it is for quite 
a novice at the practice to fish throughout the wettest day 
with his fly always floating upon the surface, especially 
if it be made with the wings standing out from the body 
like those of a butterfly, and with rather more hackle than 
is needed in wet fly-fishing. 
I am not aware whether American anglers have experi- 
mented very much with dry flies in American or Canadian 
waters, though I know of several who practice the art 
when on the ether side of the ocean. As already ex- 
plained, the conditions here are very different. Still, I 
cannot but think that there is a field for the dry fly-fisher 
in America, even of a different nature than that which 
invites him when in southern England, and it would be 
interesting to learn what anglers of resource and ex- 
perience who are readers of Forest and Stream have to 
say about it. 
Favorab e Conditions for Trout Fisting 
I have a letter before me from one of the camps in the 
vicinity of Lake Edward, which speaks in glowing terms 
of the conditions of weather and water now obtaining 
there; Clear, bright, balmy atmosphere by day. with 
chilly nights, are the prevailing weather conditions, while 
since the subsidence of the heavy rains referred lo in my 
last letter, the water has fallen to about its normal con- 
dition, and correspondingly colder than usual at' tins time 
of the year, owing largely, no doubt, to the influence of 
the recent rains. Log fires are built every night and morn- 
ing in the club houses, and campers out of doors sleep at 
night with a fire in front of the open tent or lean-to. My 
correspondent remarks that while the gorgeous sunset 
arrives all too early in the evening to presage the ter- 
mination of the day's sport, the sunrise is none too early 
for the diligent fisherman. He thus intimates that the 
early morning fishing for trout is good at present, as well 
as the evening fishing. -Personally I have seldom found 
this to be the case at this time of the year, my best suc- 
cess in morning fishing, except in summer, having in- 
variably been after the rays of the sun have warmed the 
surface of the water after a cold night. Even in salmon 
fishing I have never found the very early morning fishing 
to be of much account, and hence have entirely given up 
rising before daylight to reach the pools as soon as it is 
light enough to see the fly upon the water, a practice still 
indulged in by many anglers. On the other hand, I 
well remember returning to camp one morning at. half- 
past eight, after an hour and a half's fishing, with three 
salmon in the canoe, weighing respectively thirteen, fif- 
teen, and seventeen pounds. Judging from my earlier ex- 
periences, I should have done no better if I had fished the 
same pools that morning from half-past three to seven 
o'clock as well. 
But to return to the letter already mentioned, which 
reports the trout as rising very freely at present, the 
writer of it seems to anticipate quite an early winter. 
Not only is the weather cold at nights, but many dead 
leaves, he says, are already upon the surface of the water 
in shady pools, often becoming entangled upon the angler's 
cast of flies. This certainly shows the season to be 
further advanced in the north than it is at Quebec. 
From other sources I learn that several members of the 
Nonamtum Fish and Game Club are having fine trout 
fishing upon their preserve, among the number being Mr. 
R. H. Brown, of New Haven, president of the club. The 
best sport here is reported from the dam at the outlet of 
Commissioners' Lake, and from Big Ear Lake and a deep 
bay behind the club house. The members of the Meta- 
betchouan Club now in camp at Lake Kiskisink have been 
making good catches at the outlet of the lake, in the lily- 
pads, and also in Briggs' pool and in the Metabetchouan 
River. 
Many fishing- parties are at present encamped upon the 
limits of the Triton and Tourilli clubs, and a rather re- 
markable feature of all the reports from these and other 
preserves is the frequent reference to the unusually large 
number of moose and caribou seen in the woods and 
crossing the different lakes. If big game is as plentiful 
everywhere this autumn as it is in the Lake St. John 
country, we are surely about to enter upon a most suc- 
cessful hunting season. 
Bright and Dark Flies. 
One of the guides who was attending a friend and 
myself upon a recent angling expedition, became quite 
pronounced in his criticism of our choice of flies. While 
the weather was bright, we used bright flies, and when 
the sky was overcast and there was more or less darkness 
upon the face of the water, we changed our casts and em- 
ployed darker flies. Though it was patent to all that the 
brighter of the natural insects frequented the surface of 
the water in the sunlight, and vice-versa, and though we 
were enjoying very good average sport, the guide, who 
had always been accustomed to follow the old rule of 
bright flies for dark weather and darker ones for bright 
days, continued to shake his head, doubtless believing 
that we were throwing away our chances of greater suc- 
cess. It is quite astonishing to me that so many fisher- 
men should still adhere to the old-time practice in -their 
selection of flies, altogether irrespective of the promptings 
of nature, as illustrated by the character and the colcr 
of the flies which appear upon the surface of the water. 
So long ago as 1867, the late Mr. Burgess, in his "Angling 
and How to Angle," was evidently under the impression 
that the anglers of his day were learning better. "Old 
anglers," he said, "used to affirm that in dull weather a 
bright fly should be used, and in bright weather a dull 
fly. Mod ern anglers know better than this, and practice 
has confirmed their knowledge. Bright insects belong to 
sunny weather, as philosophy and reason have pointed 
out." It is not so many years since I found myself fish- 
ing with a black dose or dark fairy for salmon in bright 
weather and with a silver-doctor on cloudy days, and I 
continued the practice until I was persuaded by wise 
friends and careful observation that I was flying m the 
face of nature by using bright flies when none but dark 
ones were on the water, and dark ones when all the 
natural ones upon the water .were bright. It is reasonable, 
of course, to make use of bright flies in any weather 
under such exceptional circumstances as when the water 
is so heavy and dark that none others could be seen by 
the fish, and for night fishing there can be no doubt that 
large silver-grays are the best flies for salmon, -and that 
equally bright flies are necessary to secure trout by night. 
But this is quite in accordance with the rule already laic) 
down, for with the settling down upon the water of the 
shades of night, come also the white moth, and other 
light colored insects. 
Chub are Plentiful. 
I suppose that it does not matter very much to many 
anglers whether chub are plentiful in Canada or whether 
they are not, for if anglers come so far north at all, they 
may just as well have trout fishing as fishing for chub. 
But I am led to refer to the abundance of chub in 
Canadian waters because of the enthusiasm which I saw- 
displayed the other day by an English angler who was 
enjoying what he considered magnificent sport with these 
despised Canadian fish. They were rising to his flies with 
.an avidity worthy of a better fish, and though they gave 
rise to no very protracted battle, yet their first rush after 
feeling the hook was not unlike that of a trout. With this 
first show of resistance, however, their struggles ceased, 
and they came quickly to the net. The best of this sport 
is the rapidity with which the fish rise to surface lures 
Wherever they are found they are usually plentiful, and 
it is by no means uncommon to find them from a pound 
to. two pounds in weight. If the sport were more culti- 
vated, specimens could undoubtedly be found of from two 
to four pounds each, but because* trout are aJso usually 
