SHADOW PRACTICE FOR 
STRIKING TROUT 
H alf of catching a trout is to “strike” 
effecti\'dy when he rises to the fly ; 
even when you fish in excellent waters 
your basket will be light unless you have 
mastered the knack of it. To strike 
properly requires a quick and accurate 
coordination of muscle and nerve that 
caruiot be acquired without considerable 
practice, and practice is hard to get. 
You can train yourself in fly casting over 
any stretch of water or even on a lawn, 
but it is not so simple a matter to prac- 
tice striking. Even after the beginner 
has attained a certain amount of skill in 
fly casting, he is likely to lose much 
possible sport through his inability to 
hook the fish, particularly if he is fishing 
water where he cannot see the rise and 
must strike “by the feel.” 
By applying the principle of “shadow 
practice,” which boxers, baseball players 
and other athletes have found so valu- 
able, you can get practice that is second 
only to practice on rising fish. 
At one end of your room or on the 
lawn set up a curtain about four feet 
high. Then, with your rod and line 
ready for fishing, take a position about 
ten feet in front of it. Have your small 
son or a boy friend sit behind the curtain 
and hold the end of your line in his 
hand — out of your sight, of course. 
Now let him twitch the line slightly 
at irregular intervals to imitate the bite 
of a fish. Respond to the strike as quick- 
ly as possible with an upward and back- 
ward motion of the wrist only, taking 
care not to make it too severe. Soqie 
fishermen strike with a chopping, down- 
ward movement of wrist and forearm, 
and declare it to be the better way. 
Every fisherman must settle the matter 
for himself by experiment. Vary the 
E are depending upon the 
friends and admirers of our 
old correspondent Nessmuk to 
make this department worthy of 
his name. No man knew the woods 
better than Nessmuk or wrote of 
them with quainter charm. Many 
of his practical ideas on camp- 
ing and "going light” have been 
adopted by the United States 
Army; his canoe has been preserved 
in the Smithsonian Institution; and 
we hope that all good woodsmen 
zvill contribute to this department 
their Hints and Kinks and trail- 
tested contrivances . — [Editors.] 
process described above by having the 
person who is “playing fish” for you 
flash o\'er the edge of the curtain a silver 
spoon or some other bright object to 
give you practice in striking at sight of 
the rise as well as by the feel. 
Since practice of that kind is nervous 
work, do not continue it for more than 
fifteen or twenty minutes at a time. 
Faithfully and moderately carried out, it 
will develop an instinctive, accurate re- 
sponse of the muscles at the sight or the 
feeling of a rising fish, just as a sprint- 
er’s constant practice at starts finally 
enables him to leave the mark at the re- 
port of the gun, rather than after it. 
John W. Wolfe, New York. 
TENT STAKES 
T ent stakes, or pins, are an after- 
thought with the majority of campers 
at the start of a trip, but fill all their 
thoughts when it comes to setting them 
up under unfavorable circumstances, or 
when the “winds blow high.” 
As the majority of my trips are made 
where there is plenty of timber, and as I 
travel “light,” I cut my own. The crotch 
stick of which so many speak is to me 
either a myth or else I haven’t the pa- 
tience to hunt for them, so I usually cut 
green hard-wood branches, as in Eig. 1 , I 
which, when driven into the ground, keep 
the guy line from slipping over the top 
because of the “nub” on the top. 
Eor use in a main camp I make a prac- 
tice of carrying along a couple of dozen 
large spikes ; these will go into the hard- i 
est ground and hold fully as well as the | 
wooden stakes, except under the most un- | 
favorable conditions. A “claw” in the , 
camp axe yanks them out, a tap on a S 
nearby rock to straighten them, and they ! 
are ready to place in my “catch-all” for | 
travel. 
If you carry your tent pins, select them 
with as much care as you do your rod or 
rifle, picking out straight-grained hard- 
wood stakes. Take the time to trim the 
head of the stake down, as in Eig. 2 , so ■ 
that you can rivet on a narrow strip of ' 
light strap iron, flush with the wood, al- ' 
lowing about inch of the stake to ex- , 
tend above the iron at the top. This will 
allow you to drive the stake many times i 
without splitting. 
A favorite trick in sandy country is to , 
bury a log or stone, to which the guy .* 
lines are attached, as in Fig. 3 . 
Harry Irwin, New York. 
READABLE ROAD MAPS ;| 
W HEN starting out on a long auto i 
trip mount the road-maps you I ■ 
know will be wanted on sheets of very ■ 
heavy cardboard, 24 by 18 inches. In iM 
mounting leave a margin of not less ii 1 
than three inches on each side of the 'j i 
mount and of not less than half an inch t 
at both top and bottom. The side mar- < 
gin allows the map to be firmly grasped , 
by both hands, as is often necessary in a. 
