April, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
169 
for those big rubber legs of yours, stump- 
ing through the water, will scare every 
one of them to his lair. We note a huge 
boulder, with the waters racing past it 
in a foamy cascade. It is, maybe, fifty 
feet away from the nearest rock from 
which it can be cast. We plan to reach 
that rock, and then, standing on it, we 
get out line in false casts, until we drop 
the fly just above the sluice. Sharp-eyed, 
we see our little black dot dancing swiftly 
down-stream, a mere speck in the foam- 
ing waters. There is a splash, and the 
black dot disappears — and we strike with 
a twitch of the wrist and the battle is on ! 
I prefer these large streams, for one is 
free from the annoyances of getting the 
back-cast hung up in trees, and I use 
eyed flies in preference to snelled because 
they are less mussy. The snelled flies are 
better, in tree-infested waters, because 
one can then drag down the tackle by 
force, when the snell parts, leaving the 
fly in the tree, but you do not lose your 
gut leader also. In all these foamy 
waters the fly is generally drowned be- 
fore it has gone fifty feet, but it is easily 
dried with a few false casts, or, if it per- 
sists in sinking, reel in and dope it with 
your bottle of dry fly oil, hanging to a 
button on your shirt, and it will be good 
for several more voyages. 
Again, we come to a still pool where 
the water crawls glassily along. Surely 
there are trout here, most likely under 
the roots of the trees overhanging the 
bank. Keeping far enough away to be 
well out of sight, we cast across the pool 
and watch our fly float quietly down on its 
glassy surface. Suddenly there is a 
glimpse of a pink mouth rushing at the 
fly, down in the depths, and we strike, 
for he will have it before the wrist im- 
pulse reaches the fly. 
These are successful tactics that have 
filled my creel when a whip of wet flies 
would remain unnoticed and the worm 
stay on bottom untouched. Another fav- 
orite trick is to cast over a big boulder, 
with the water running like a mill race 
under it, and land the fly right on the 
boulder. A twitch of the rod then drops 
it off the boulder, and a large trout, com- 
pletely fooled, grabs it, to come later 
flapping into the net. All our old stand- 
ard wet flies, March Brown, Cowdung, 
Coachman, Parmachenee Belle, Grizzly 
King, Silver Doctor, etc., are now tied 
dry, with wings cocked so they will float, 
in addition to which we have borrowed a 
lot of good ones from the English, — Pale 
Evening Dun, for after four o’clock fish- 
ing, Iron Blue Dun, Yellow Sally, Whirl- 
ing Dun and the like. I find that on east- 
ern streams the old standards, tied dry, 
answer very well, with a few English flies 
added. Half a dozen of each suffice for a 
four day’s trip, and, if eyed, they will all 
go in the cork base of a small, tin Loch 
Leven fly box, which is carried in the hip 
pocket. With a crescent-shaped tin belt 
box, well stuffed with minnows and angle 
worms, we are fixed for fly days or bait 
days, both of which occur in any trip in 
June. 
For clothing, I wear an olive-drab flan- 
nel shirt, gray homespun wool trousers 
tucked into hip rubber boots and held up 
by white suspenders, a soft felt hat, and 
Leave a few for seed 
leather wading sandals buckled over the 
soles of my boots to prevent upsets in the 
slippery rock bottoms of the streams. I 
do not wear a creel, mainly because I do 
not own one; instead, a 14 x 12 inch can- 
vas bag holds a folding rubber rain-coat 
weighing 19 ounces, to put on if a shower 
comes up, and a packet of lunch in a 
waterproof pouch. The trout go very 
well in the bottom of this bag, and, when 
the lunch is gone, there is room for more 
of them. 
Other accessories are; a folding land- 
ing net, which hangs from my belt by a 
snap hook and is tied to me by a yard of 
line so that it will not float away if I 
drop it; a hunting knife for cutting 
flies off the leader, or cutting branches 
with which to get down a fly caught on 
a limb; a bottle of dry fly oil with its 
brush cork, secured by a leather flap to 
a button on my shirt; pipe, matches and 
tobacco; and the fly box in my hip 
pocket. All these things must be on you 
and handy to get at at all times, for you 
may cover three or four miles of stream 
in a morning’s fishing and they cannot 
be left anywhere. What to do with the 
rod when taking a fish off the hook also 
puzzles the beginner. He generally 
hangs it in the crook of his arm, where 
the current promptly winds it and the 
line all around him, pumping up a lot of 
needless profanity thereby. The thing 
to do is to rest the butt of the rod in the 
top of your left boot, with the rod up- 
right along your left shoulder, leaving 
both hands free to manage a squirming 
trout in the net. 
This outfit is cheap and efficient, and, 
once it is bought, you have the where- 
withal for many a fine day’s sport along 
the streams of your home country side. 
If there are no trout waters near home, 
look at the map of your state and see 
if there isn’t good mountainous country 
with trout streams in it somewhere with- 
in a few dollar’s carfare from home. 
Nearly every state has a hatchery, and 
even if not mountainous, all streams cold 
enough to allow trout have been stocked. 
Even in South Jersey, an area of pine 
and sand, the streams yield excellent 
fishing, particularly in the worm season 
of early spring. 
A WORD on fly casting for the tyro. 
It is the easiest form of angling to 
learn, and even these directions 
will suffice to start on. Choose a spot 
over water, where you have plenty of 
room behind you for the back-cast. Start 
off with about five feet more line than 
the length of the rod. Cast it forward 
until it lies out flat on the water. Now 
lift it smartly, with your wrist only ; 
bring rod to perpendicular, and stop it 
there. Wait a second, until the cast 
straightens out behind. Then give the 
rod a forward impulse, with your wrist 
only, not with your arms as if you were 
switching old Dobbin. At the same time, 
strip off a yard of line with your left 
hand from the reel, and, as the rod comes 
forward to horizontal, pay out this ad- 
ditional line through the guides. Raise 
(continued on page 211) 
I generally choose a stream where there is plenty of room for casting 
