July, 1922 
FOREST AND STREAM 
295 
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I 
1 : 
Courtesy ot Canadian Pacific Railroad. 
A critical moment when both the rod and landing net must be handled with dexterity 
When fishing in the near-twilight and 
j in the dusk it is well to use flies lighter 
in color than usual. I have long rec- 
( ommended the Yellow Sally as the one 
I best bet for fishing in the gloom, and 
;:! even into the night if the moon is shin- 
' ing. A White Miller and Coachman are 
i also good flies that will readily be seen 
in the water by the feeding bass. A 
point scored in fishing in these hours is 
that the bass have no inkling of one’s 
! approach. I have captured dandy ones 
as close to me as ten feet. In no man- 
I ner of means is this said to discounte- 
' nance the keenness of the small-mouth. 
Far from it. The small-mouth is ex- 
ceedingly keen of eyesight. In the dusk 
one’s approach is not noticed, though dur- 
ing the day it is well to keep a good 
distance away from the places you are 
I fishing. 
T UST so marvelously quick at seizing 
^ the fly is the small-mouth that unless 
your wrist is trained to give the turn 
), that will set the hook in the mouth of 
the active one, almost simultaneous with 
the seizure, he will spit it Qut and is 
away before you are aware what has 
' happened. This accounts for a great 
number of losses even among finished 
[ fly fishermen, even veteran small-mouth 
■ fishermen; for it is one thing to fish for 
brook trout and quite another to go up 
against the small-mouth. 
The mouth of the small-mouth bass is 
t naturally smaller than that of the large- 
ly mouth bass. In the large-mouth the car- 
I tilege or skin around the mouth will tear. 
No doubt the mouth of the large-mouth 
in comparison with that of dolomieu is 
weak; for small though the mouth of 
the latter be it nevertheless clamps down 
with a fierce intensity when it does strike. 
And where the skin around the mouth 
of the large-mouth is weak, and will tear, 
in the small-mouth it is tough and once 
the hook is seated in it, it will stay, 
unless something unforeseen happens. 
But, owing to the fact that the carti- 
lege of the skin around the mouth of 
dolomieu is tough, it is necessary, when 
setting the hook, to give a good jerk 
so that the hook point is driven in. 1 
can account for a number of losses I 
have made from the fact that the jerk 
has not been sharp enough. For this 
reason it is well to sec that all fly-hooks 
in the bass flies used are filed sharp. 
Two-thirds of the losses will then be 
overcome. 
The material that goes into the hook 
is a matter also of some moment. On 
some choice flies, and some I have tied 
myself, the hand-forged type of hook has 
been used. This makes a very strong 
hook and is well nigh unbreakable. But 
I have this to say against it ; generally 
the barb is short and the point dulls. 
Unless watched and kept filed, it will 
register many losses. However, on all 
other points the hand-forged hook, so- 
called, is the winner and while finer- 
bodied hooks will turn up extremely 
sharp they have not the weight behind 
them that will set them solidly and 
firmly in the jaw. It is hard to state 
the “something” that makes the hand- 
forged hook different from others, but 
any e.xperienced angler knows its value, 
though in all probability he will not be 
able to explain it. 
'T'lIE selection in colors of sinnners is 
of some moment. 'I'herc are so-calK d 
“gold” spinners and nickel, or "silver” 
spinners. Both of these kinds, by the 
way, should be kept on hand. There i.s 
a time and place for each. 'I'o yo forth 
armed with nickel plated siunners alone 
would be courting enough sneee». for it 
you are jiroficient in maniinilating them 
in the water you need not go home emiity 
handed. It is well, however, small as 
these spinners are, to keep them pol- 
ished. Rub them on a flannel cloth with 
some wet wood ashes on it -this will 
bring back the glitter and servi to th.'ow 
a brighter ray. That this is necessary 
must of course be accepted as a fact, * t 
it is probable that it is a flashing shim r 
minnow that the fly is taken for and mu 
a fly. To believe that the fish taki -n it 
for a fly is foolish; indeed if tlu fly .uid 
spinner be studied moving through the 
water it will show the hair of tlu- fly 
smoothed down and a spinner r< solving 
which the bass believes to be fins moving. 
While I vastly jirefer the ust of the 
spinner and fly I do m>t mean to infer 
that any other inethoil is not w ^rth 
trying out under harmoiiions i>r even oim- 
flicting conditions. The fl... ting ba^s 
bugs of many types are i,re.;tl\ in ii.-e; 
and that they will get b.i>s and lotr. . f 
them has been deinoiistr.-ited siilViei.-ntly 
to prove their high nu-rit. In tlu -.sii- 
mation of some of our gn- t m b ig 
experts the cork bug is the in -st sp. .rts- 
man-Iike lure of the lot Pm tlu siu . 11- 
mouths. The method of using tlu -^ bugs 
is quite different from tb. t ■ f the - •in- 
ner and fly. The latter is n iinder- 
(Coiiti)iued on pogc 314) 
