September, 1922 
395 
— bang! my line jumped clear of the 
waves and the old box was vacated in 
a trice while my line cut through the 
water across the flat to deeper water, 
where the battle was fought to a finish 
and the first striped trophy of 1922 was 
at our feet. 
To my suggestion that he use blood- 
worm there was no response from Jo- 
seph. He was “fishin’ ” and needed no 
advice. 
Again worm bait won, and again I 
suggested worms, only to be reminded 
that I not only had worms on the hook 
but also on the brain. 
When worms had won the third bass 
T began my best argument by reminding 
my companion that he was more or less 
of a fossil, so set in his ways that even 
the evidence of three bass could not 
convince him that crabs were useless at 
that particular time and that very rarely 
indeed, as many past experiences told us, 
would these fish change their feeding- 
habits on a single tide. 
There was still much to be said in 
support of my view, and I was very 
busy saying it when— smash I Joe’s rod 
went double and there was trouble for a 
striper out on the bar. When it was 
beached it proved to be the largest thus 
far taken. 
“Made quite a smoke, didn’t it?” 
queried Cawthorn, as he nonchalently 
adjusted another section of crab on his 
hook. 
“What made a smoke?” I asked, inno- 
cently enough. 
“Why, your pet theory, when it 
busted !” And then he chuckled as his 
bait went out to sea — and again crab 
won. 
As darkness came on, knowing that a 
hard day of endeavor was ours for the 
morrow, we retired to the house-boat 
with seven stripers to our credit ; five 
to worm and two to crab and they were 
carefully cleaned and iced. 
S UPPER was awaiting on our arrival, 
to which vigorous justice was done, 
and despite the fact that all windows 
and doors were well screened mosquitoes 
attacked us viciously. This was past 
understanding, and as quickly as possible 
lights were put out and we sought the 
cots supposed to furnish rest to the tired 
and those of easy conscience, but alas ! 
mosquitoes, like other detectives, have 
{Continued on page 424) 
THE METAL-BODIED FLY-MINNOW 
A NEW SET OF TINY SILVER AND GOLD LURES FOR TROUT 
AND BASS IN RAPID STREAMS AND STILL-WATER LAKES 
M 
OST anglers must be perpetually 
amused at the humorous dis- 
cussions as to what is the best 
fly to seduce trout and bass. 
They continue like Tennyson’s “Brook” 
— “Men may come, and men may go, but 
discussion goes on forever.” I have 
heard them for forty years, and read of 
them forty years back of that. So far, 
the vast preponderence of opinion is, 
not so much in what individual fly has 
proved best, but rather, in what they 
think would most likely be successful, 
and where the joke really comes in — no 
two are alike! The final result has, and 
always will, I think, simmer down to a 
tactful selection of several most likely 
colors and forms of the most popular 
flies now procured from the dealers. 
Therefore, in this article I furnish 
another chance for 
further discussion. 
Fifteen years ago, 
after some study 
and tests made to 
solve this vexed and 
difficult problem, I 
wrote an article for 
a sportsman’s maga- 
zine entitled, “Try 
Metal - bodied Flies 
for Trout and Bass.” 
In part, it said : 
“With a book full 
of standard flies I 
spend more time in 
changing casts than 
in actual fishing. If a trout took a 
Palmer or Gray Drake I would work it 
for all it was worth, then change it again 
because of failure to a Coachman or Sil- 
ver Doctor. All of them after a time 
would fail to become what I term steady 
diet. Studying the matter from all 
points, making notes of the natural in- 
sects on the water, I came, to the con- 
clusion — size was the greatest factor to 
By LOUIS RHEAD 
success, that color had much less to do 
in attracting the fish. Furthermore, I 
found out quite by accident that a fly 
which had a shining metal body of silver 
or gold, no matter where placed on the 
leader, always lured the trout in prefer- 
ence to the two other flies of plain- 
colored or bright-colored bodies. Dur- 
ing two entire seasons I noticed my spe- 
cially tied metal-body flies were taken 
by eight out of ten fish, and on some 
days every fish caught was on the same 
fly. It is an ancient truism that all game 
fishes are strongly attracted to a metallic 
substance shining on or in the water, 
especially if moved with considerable 
speed, for the reason it is more easily 
seen at a greater distance in the water 
than dull or even bright colors. Trout 
fiy- MINNOW FOR 
, WU,LOWEMOC 
Nil /X 
batten KU.U 
invariably lie close to the bed of the 
stream to only see the under bodies of 
living insects, all of which are either a 
light yellow tone or silvery white. 
The same is true of young minnows 
with lower bodies of golden red or 
silvery white. What could be more 
true or more effective imitation of 
insects and minnows than silver and 
gold?” 
TOURING the intervening years my 
^ studies were exclusively devoted to 
the collection and painting of the most 
abundant trout-stream insects, which fi- 
nally resulted in developing a series of 
what is now known as “nature flies.” 
These flies have been fully tested and 
used with satisfaction and success by a 
great many anglers all over the northern 
zone. Notwithstanding their high prices, 
because of extra care in exactly copying 
the natural insects, over two thousand 
dozen have been sold and used with con- 
siderable pleasure which the majority 
have testified. 
These shiny fly-minnows form a new 
and different class of trout lure than my 
“nature” flies or any other trout fly. As 
the name implies, they are a combination 
of fly and minnow — in shape a fly, in 
body, a minnow, 
that by a systematic 
method, devised and 
tested with great 
care, they have 
proved to be an un- 
failing lure to the 
keen eyes of trout 
and bass if the right 
color of wing are 
used as here de- 
scribed. This sim- 
ple method will 
result in making the 
charm of fly fishing, 
both dry and wet, 
much more easy for 
either expert or tyro, in that it means 
good results from a small selection of 
only six patterns; that when used at the 
right time saves expense and loss of 
time in trying to find out just the right 
fly to induce trout to rise to them. This 
set is a decided advance toward the per- 
fect trout lure. They attract fish all 
through the day, in any weather, early 
{Continued on page 425) 
''“6 MONOAU^. 
