342 . 
FORES T 
A X I) 
STREAM 
July, 1919 
THE ELEMENTS OF TROUT FISHING 
RULES IN TROUT FISHING AMOUNT TO LITTLE. ONE HOUR OF ACTUAL PRACTICE 
ON A GOOD STREAM WILL TEACH YOU MORE THAN A HUNDRED BOOKS 
By ROBERT PAGE LINCOLN 
A GREAT deal of good commonsense 
has been written about trout and 
trout fishing. Equally as much 
has been written that is obscure but 
which is sufficiently fanatical to cause 
conjecture and misapprehension among 
the ranks of the angling element. In 
the argument for or against the dry fly, 
and for or against the so-called wet fly, 
each side, by stating and restating its 
conclusions, has done its share to make 
the subject more dense than ever. 
The sum total of this matter is that 
the dry fly is good under some condi- 
tions, and so is the wet fly. If the chance 
is open for good dry fly fishing, one is 
foolish not to try this method out; but 
if these conditions do not obtain, there 
is always recourse to that old stand-by, 
the wet fly, which has never proved false. 
The air of density that has clung 
around dry fly fishing like an impentra- 
ble mist, obscured in long Halfordian 
words and phrases, technical and other- 
wise, has usually frightened away the 
well meaning angler, who may have 
never tried the method, believing it some- 
thing connected with the laws of the 
cosmic phenomena. As a matter of fact 
(leaving the ponderous phrases out) dry 
fly fishing is readily learned by anyone 
who has angling at heart, who is pa- 
tient and painstaking, and who knows 
the general rules governing the casting 
of the fly when, where, and what to use. 
As for the dense scientific speculations, 
the maps and the diagrams that have 
gone with the process, they all seem 
aimed chiefly to create prestige for the 
writer. For, as Charles Hallock has 
said, the more dense 
you become the 
higher your stand- 
ing among the ang- 
ling fraternity. 
The opportunities 
and conditions ob- 
t a i n i n g for first- 
class dry-fly fishing 
in this country are 
few and far between, 
since our streams 
are mostly of a 
rough and rugged 
nature and especi- 
ally adapted to the 
use of the wet fly. 
This does not go to 
say that there are 
not places on any 
stream where placid 
water is found, and 
where the dry fly 
can really be fished 
dry, or floating. 
(When the dry fly 
submerges, it is no 
longer a dry fly, but 
a wet fly.) By all 
means try out the 
dry fly and learn the especial art of 
casting it. But remember that two- 
thirds of the time the wet fly is the fly 
to use. 
In the matter of inventiveness in fly 
making we have progressed very slowly, 
for we still cling to the old traditional 
forms, accepting feather dusters as an 
artificial presentation of the trout’s na- 
tural food. The average fly is not by 
the widest degree of reasoning anything 
like the trout’s food. And while some 
trout will, in a spirit of adventure, try 
anything (they often rise to leaves, 
flower petals and bits of sticks) it could 
hardly be said that they imagined such 
flies to be food. I have been collaborat- 
ing with Doctor Harry Gove, of New 
Brunswick, for over a year and a half 
in the production of a true lifelike art- 
ificial fly. 
I think that this has been very suc- 
cessful and the Doctor says that it is 
the best that has ever been put out. 
Here the form of the true fly is pre- 
served, colors, and all, and the wings 
are not of feathers, but a special, in- 
geniously constructed material that 
makes for transparency. This produc- 
tion we have finished was first started 
by Doctor Gove and the immortal ang- 
ling writer, the late John Harrington 
Keene. 
Mr. Keene and my friend the Doctor 
were lifelong companions. I used this fly 
last summer along the Brule, in Wiscon- 
sin, and had exceptionally good luck with 
it. For our mutual pleasure we are con- 
structing other flies and I have no doubt 
but that seme great forward, steps will 
be made. When complete our findings 
will be given to the public. 
A GREAT number of anglers will 
have nothing to do with fishing 
early in the spring, when the sea- 
son opens. In some places the fishing 
lawfully opens on the first of April, in 
• other places later. A stock term for use 
in the magazines and books is that no 
true, sportsmanlike and self-respecting 
angler will be caught taking trout in 
the spring with common worms and min- 
nows, and other live' bait along this line. 
However, I have never yet met an angler 
who would not use live bait, especially 
worms, when a few trout were desired 
and a few pleasant days attained. 
It is so hard to keep away from the 
streams at the opening of the season 
that one wants to go out to wet his line 
if nothing else. And as it has been said 
time and again, there is nothing that 
affords so much happiness as fishing the 
streams when the ice has gone out. 
As a matter of fact the live bait sj’s- 
tem is the only one that will bring suc- 
cess in the first part of the season. Only 
if the fly is sunken very deep, and played 
in clear water, will a catch be registered 
on the fly from the 15th of April to the 
middle of May. From then on the fly- 
fishing is particularly good. 
In some localities, I must admit the 
fly fishing begins to get good much 
earlier in the month of May than the 
15th. But earlier in the spring the fish 
are sluggish. They hug the bottom or 
their deep places, and feed on what 
comes down with the waters; if you were 
to cut open a trout’s 
stomach at this time 
you would find in it 
many sticks, point- 
ing to the fact that 
it devours the case- 
flies, house and all. 
The average com- 
ment, by and large, 
on bait fishing for 
trout is usually the 
same. Every article 
follows a prescribed, 
time - honored order, 
and it is indeed 
hopeless to find any- 
thing out of the set 
plan. In an article 
I wrote a year ago 
I aroused much in- 
terest and comment 
by the “swimming a 
W3rm’’ method I 
spoke of, for use in 
trout fishing, espe- 
cially in the spring. 
This method by the 
way is a relief from 
the gob of worm 
system, ordinarily 
Looking over the battlefield before making an assault on the wary trout 
