202 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May, 1919 
tion fishing where they are as plentiful 
as they are in the Rockies, the Adiron- 
dacks, or Canada, but here again the 
sport loses an added zest that is present 
where they are scarce. 
Every season I have gone after the 
speckled 
beauties and I 
am writing 
this in the 
hope that my 
study of the 
sport and my 
experience will 
benefit some 
fellow angler. 
P r e s u m - 
ing that you 
are already be- 
ginning 
to plan for the 
coming season, 
I offer these 
tips regarding 
proper cloth- 
ing, tackle, 
bait, and the 
habits of the 
trout that are 
necessary for 
you to know. 
I N speaking 
of the best 
clothing for 
the stream, I 
have evolved a 
combina- 
tion that 
seems to me to 
be the most 
comfortable. I 
like to wade and cast a fly ahead of me 
which means that I must either get wet 
or wear the usual hip-boots. I think 
boots are too heavy for a ten-mile tramp. 
They chafe one’s heels and tire one out 
with their weight. Then, if they are 
carried to and from the stream they are 
cumbersome and prove to be excess bag- 
gage. There is nothing like the smooth 
sole of a rubber boot upon a slippery 
rock in midstream to give one a hard fall. 
Then, if the stream bed is filled with 
sharp stones, the sole of a boot is too thin 
to protect your feet from bruises. I al- 
ways take a heavy, high-topped pair of 
leather shoes, about two sizes too large, 
and cut holes about one-half inch in 
width along the sides, allowing the wa- 
ter to run in and out again. I wear two 
pairs of heavy woolen socks to afford 
ray feet an easy cushion and keep them 
warm. A pair of grey overalls and a 
grey flannel shirt finishes the outfit. 
You must avoid any color that does not 
blend with the land-scape — trout have a 
million eyes! 
This whole outfit can be strapped into 
a small, compact bundle and carried to 
the stream. Here I find a secluded spot, 
change my clothes and hide my “good” 
ones under a log or a handy rock. 
In the evening, a change to dry cloth- 
ing is made before I leave the stream. 
The clothing problem is important. If 
you have to go around a pool to keep 
dry — the whole day is spoiled. 
As for bait, that is largely a matter 
of taste, both for the fisherman and the 
trout. Early in the season — in April 
and early May — earth worms, or “fish- 
ing worms” as they are commonly 
called, are perhaps the best bait that can 
be found. However, if there are large 
trout in the stream, such as Rainbows 
Nearing the end of a royal battle 
and Brown trout, live minnows or small 
mice are good — you will not catch many 
trout with these, but when you do get 
one, the sport of landing him is worth 
a basket full of little fellows. After 
the middle of May and from then on 
until the end of the season, I prefer to 
use artificial flies, the correct handling 
of which is an art with ramifications 
all of its own. The novice is likely to 
succeed best with worms, but there are 
worms and worms and devious ways of 
handling them. For all practical pur- 
poses they may be classified into four 
groups: white grubs found in rotton 
logs and stumps, white worms found in 
your garden, little red streaked worms 
that live in a manure pile, and “night 
crawlers.” Grubs are par excellent but 
hard to get. Second best is the solid, 
white, garden worm. I never caught 
a fish in my life on the little red ones, 
and the “night crawlers” are for special 
occasions. A night crawler or “night 
walker,” as they are sometimes called, 
seems to inhabit the bowels of the earth, 
for I never dug one to the surface dur- 
ing the day, although I have often 
found their holes. They travel at night, 
crawling a short distance from their 
holes where they lie flat on the ground. 
They are about as long as an ordinary 
lead pencil and very active. It’s a trick 
to grab one before he scoots into his 
hole — they move faster than one’s eye 
can travel. In a dry season they re- 
fuse to come up unless you coax them 
with the garden hose for about two 
F ly casting is fishing de luxe, because 
it requires more skill, it affords a 
greater variety of lures, one gets 
the thrills of the strike, even though 
the fish is lost, and the larger fish are 
more apt to take a fly than bait. Fur- 
thermore, one can whip a stream easier 
and cover all of the possible holes where 
a trout may lurk in less time. Then 
there is more action, more exercise, as 
the arm is kept in a constant swinging 
motion. There is something about fly 
fishing that has a fascination bait cast^ 
ing can never have. It has more of an 
element of chance as the catch depends 
on so many things — the weather, the 
time of day, the particular fly the trout 
are taking, and the season. A bright, 
clear day is never good, except for an 
hour at sunrise and just at dusk. A 
muggy, hot day when the air is sticky 
and thick enough to cut seems to stimu- 
late their appetites until they act raven- 
ous. Such a day as this is good far 
into the night. I have found it to be 
a general rule that more trout can be 
caught for a couple of hours after seven 
in the evening than during the entire 
day. 
Hatches of fresh flies come on the 
water every night and sometimes under 
hours. Then go carefully over the 
ground, using a flash light and they are 
yours. It’s worth your effort to take a 
few of these along for early morning or 
night fishing, to lure a fastidious big 
fellow that may scorn your other bait. 
I have landed 
some big trout 
on “night 
walkers” that 
refused every- 
thing else. 
It’s a knack 
to know how 
to handle a 
worm when 
you get it in 
the water. 
String it 
loosely on the 
hook, so that 
the tag ends 
are free to 
squirm. Re- 
place it often 
with fresh 
worms as a 
dead, water- 
soaked worm 
is useless. Use 
a long line and 
let the bait 
float far ahead 
of you — under 
a clump of 
submerged 
brush, or log, 
into anj’ hid- 
den recess. 
Keep it in mo- 
tion and free 
from snags 
with a short jerking movement. When 
a trout takes it, let him run a distance 
and then retrieve him with an easy jerk. 
One must keep the bait fresh, in mo- 
tion, and playing into hard-to-get-at 
holes. 
