300 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July, 1922 
ARTIFICIAL BAITS FOR TROUT 
ANIMAL LIFE GENERALLY USED FOR LIVE BAIT SHOULD BE 
LEFT UNDISTURBED AS NATURAL FOOD FOR GAME FISH 
By LOUIS RHEAD 
I NSECTS are quite scarce during the 
hot days in July. You only see trout 
moving in the evening glow and hear 
the plop, plop of jumping fish after 
dark, so that most fly-fishers let trout 
alone and go after bass, quite equal, if 
not superior, sport. After having sati- 
ated his desires at the opening of the sea- 
son most anglers are satisfied to wait 
till July vacation time, when again he 
longs to test his skill against trout or 
bass — perhaps both. Whatever are the 
conditions of weather and water the 
chances for success are extremely favor- 
able to get adult, large size fish on un- 
derwater baits — especially minnows dur- 
ing the daytime perhaps, but certain at 
evening or after dark. The greatest 
value of artificial minnows and other 
lures is that you are not required to be 
stantly rebaiting — they survive — always 
fresh to capture many trout; indeed one 
minnow will last through the season, 
sometimes — with luck, several seasons. 
E very angler will agree that dry and 
wet flies are preeminent as trout 
lures, that they are adequate in provid- 
ing every legitimate sport that could rea- 
sonably be desired. Some experts go so 
far as to consider the time propitious to 
enact laws restricting the use of live or 
artificial minnows as trout lures, not so 
much because of their deadliness as baits, 
but of a supposed unsportsmanlike 
method. Of course, all depends upon the 
kind of method employed, and I shall 
here endeavor to describe a new method, 
and new lures, that cannot be considered 
unsportsmanlike. 
In later years we have had many new 
methods and lures for trout; whether 
they will be permanent is a question, 
though some of them are popular and 
must capture fish or they would not re- 
main on the market as baits. A case in 
point is wbat are known as trout bugs 
of the bottlecork type, which are trimmed 
with fanciful feathers. Another “bug” 
is of cork body tightly covered with 
buck or squirrel tail hairs which are dec- 
orated in various colors. These are 
neither intended — at least it is hoped — 
to imitate minnows, or flies, and the 
method employed to capture trout is left 
to each angler’s skilful use of them. 
All species of trout. East or West, 
after attaining to a growth of over a 
pound weight are most partial to a fish 
diet — in some localities big trout feed 
exclusively on minnows or other fish 
food, and in some of the far-western 
streams the live minnow is the only lure 
found effective. It must be explained 
the minnow is here meant in general 
terms to include shiners, herrings and 
other small fish food, as nearly every lo- 
cality has its own special term in describ- 
ing fish lures. Here in Eastern waters 
the adult brown trout, rainbow and 
speckled trout take a minnow in prefer- 
Tiny crawfish, two-inch darter, three-inch 
terror, one-inch tiny terror, helgramite 
and floating cricket 
ence to flies or any other bait, especially 
after dark when most of the really big 
trout are caught because that is the only 
time, they will feed. 
Spinning minnows with treble hook 
gangs that revolve are a work of the 
devil, as also are the gang hooks for live 
minnows. Both are a nuisance as line 
twisters, and a menace to any good trout 
water in affrighting the fish. Many are 
sold because they appear dangerous to 
the feel, but few capture trout, and no 
expert will use them for the reason they 
are hard to play and easily snagged in 
river fishing. I see no reasonable objec- 
tion to a small live minnow attached by 
the lips or back to a single hook played 
down stream to suitable haunts of large 
trout in the day or night time, with rea- 
sonable chance for the old and wiser 
trout to nip the minnow from the hook, 
which it most often does. Artificial 
minnows are constructed on a scientific 
basis after hard study and years of test- 
ing their fitness in the endeavor to make 
a lure to beat live bait, which they now 
do in several ways. Being made of 
painted cork with the hooks placed for 
right balance to float upright they can 
be made to swim slowly or can be darted 
through the water to act precisely as a 
living minnow acts in nature; in addi- 
tion to that, the shining, silver belly is an 
unfailing attraction. If trout once grab 
it, they cannot get away because the 
hooks are so placed as to instantly pierce 
either upper or lower jaw to hold. 
Trout invariably strike minnows side- 
ways, then, with mouth closed, start off 
at full speed so suddenly as to fairly 
make the reel shriek and the angler nerv- 
ous, unless a veteran at the game. 
But the larger fish are not always in 
the mood to take either live or artificials, 
it so often happens; perhaps out of mere 
deviltry they rush upwards, only to miss, 
and refuse to repeat the strike no matter 
how many changes you make in the lure 
or even live minnows. After a splendid 
dash and miss they shoot above the water, 
then go down to sulk, hiding still under a 
dark rock, refusing to budge till nightfall. 
As trout grow older and larger in size 
their slyness and cunning increases which 
is evident from the number of large fish 
found dead of old age along the stream, 
as compared with the few caught by 
anglers. This oft-repeated habit of tak- 
ing a miss-strike make it necessary that 
all artificial lures be made on right prin- 
ciples, as to their form, for natural move- 
ment, and their color representation to in- 
duce trout to take them. They should be so 
constructed that they can be made to move 
by a slow gliding motion or in the most 
rapid darts through the water, for when 
taken that way they are likewise swiftly 
taken by the fish. A light-weight, two, 
or three-inch artificial minnow, attached 
to a six-foot fine, yet strong leader, is 
best cast and played just as you would a 
dry fly; skipped along the surface up 
{Continued on page 328) 
