FOREST AND STREAM 
375 
From An Angler’s Note Book 
The Vagaries of the Trout and Bass—Some Philosophy—and Recipe for Fly Dope 
Some time or other in the life of every pa¬ 
tient and industrious angder comes the time when 
a trout is met with that will not allow himself 
to be taken into the net. In the circumvention 
of such creatures, methods out of the ordinary 
must needs be used. I have spoken in another 
article of how one man got around some wily 
trout by climbing into a tree over their pool and 
dropping his flies from this vantage point, thus 
completely outwitting the sly ones. Certainly, 
to catch one such trout, a wise old battle-scarred 
veteran, is equal to a hundred caught at your 
ease. If your regulation, or sdlf-tied, flies will 
not work to perfection, then use bait methods. 
Attach to your hook a butterfly, or a kicking 
grasshopper, and cast him in. As a rule, many 
are thus caught. 
One angler counsels to go out into the fields 
and search out a nest of field mice; to hook on 
a baby mouse; to take the sinkers, if any, off 
the line and to cast it out, allowing the creature 
to float upon the surface. He claims that thus 
the wiliest old trout is captured. The present 
writer has not tried this method. He wonders not 
a little if it is not a brutal method, presuming 
that the mouse is alive. However, many are un¬ 
sportsmanlike enough to do this. If the mouse 
were dead, of course nothing need be said 
against it. 
It is said upon eminent authority that bass, in 
common with many other fish, are not excited by 
electrical disturbances, or any commotion above, 
on the face of the waters. The present writer is 
very skeptical regarding this, looking, of course, 
from his own individual viewpoint. I have caught 
bass, and many of them, when the thunder and 
lightning and rain were raising perfect havoc 
with the world around; but the bass struck with 
unabating fervor. However, there are excep¬ 
tions. The bass, being one of the oddest crea¬ 
tures swimming, suits his fancy to varied no¬ 
tions. I do know, however, that noise upon the 
water does not helD the fishing any. Those who 
are able to work tneir boat into the lily-pads with 
the least disturbance, who are the most cautious, 
are certainly those who are most rewarded. 
I have made the assertion that bass can see 
for a distance of some fifty feet. This I have 
proven time and time again. The well-known 
maker of the Coaxer Minnow understood and 
appreciated this most significant fact. Thus he 
constructed his bait along a strict plane of origi¬ 
nality, whereby his bait would also emulate a 
butterfly, in the air, and a swimming frog in the 
water. On a clear day, when the bass are feed¬ 
ing, they often lie silent beside some obstruc¬ 
tion, or in the shade of some lily-pad, very close 
to the surface of the water. Given this shade as 
a protection, they are able to see far, and are al¬ 
ways alert. Thus I have watched a butterfly 
bobbing low over the water some twenty feet 
away. Suddenly there has been a cutting streak 
through the water, and the termination of it 
By Robert Page Lincoln. 
would be right under the poised fly. The Coaxer 
Minnow is often taken before it hits the surface 
of the water, the bass running out some fifteen, 
often up to twenty feet, to catch it. This proves 
conclusively, from my observations, from my 
individual viewpoint, that bass see for great dis¬ 
tances. 
Long ago I began to appreciate the use of 
greater caution when bait casting for Micropter- 
ous Salmoides, the big-mouth black bass. I even 
abandoned the use of the boat some time ago, 
for the reason that I thought it did not fulfill. 
Where fish are eminently civilized (as the term 
for education goes), they must be followed up 
by the use, often, of extreme cautiousness. 
Therefore I donned my hip boots and waded 
among the pads, casting carefully, and without 
much disturbance among the pads where the fish 
were subtly rising. The result was of such note 
that I could cover one patch of pads, walking 
slow and casting, and catch ten of them, where, 
from the outer edge of the pads, casting inshore, 
I could only gather in three or four. 
This point of observation is one that should 
be carefully considered. Presuming that you are 
standing up in the boat; the bass see long dis¬ 
tances, and surely they see you. Perhaps they 
take your bait just out of keen exasperation. 
Whereas, standing inshore, perhaps with the sun 
toward you, you are not seen, and you have more 
success as a rule. I have done this. I have 
crept down, and out into the water, and I have 
stood very still there for a long time, finally 
making my cast, as lightly and as true as skill 
would allow. The result has been so good that 
I always practice it. 
It is well known that pretty nearly any of our 
common fishes will some time or another take 
flies, when manipulated by the system of fly 
casting. Large pumpkin-seed sunfish are thus 
caught; and the writer remembers, with a turn 
of his fancy, many a summer evening spent in 
the shallows deliberately hooking the broad-sided 
ones. They will fight and stay to it to the last 
ounce of their energy. 
That fly-fishing for these common fishes is of 
interest as well as significant note, goes without 
saying, and one has but to use a little bit of ex¬ 
perimentation in this individual accomplishment 
to realize its worth. In the early morning, and 
in the evening hours, when the fish are in the 
shallows picking up vagrant insects dipping to 
water, then is the time when your midge flies, 
tied to the smallest hooks, will prove their worth. 
As a matter of fact, there is need of as much cau¬ 
tion in this singular process, as in any other: 
for these fish are keen and careful when rising 
to artificial things that of course appear sug¬ 
gestive sometimes. The sunfish rise freely at 
times, and some of the best fishing in this line 
that the writer has had has been with the crap- 
pies and the perch. 
The perch makes one of the best fish for fly¬ 
fishing. To spot a pool full of these little, hard¬ 
bodied, sharp-finned fellows is to realize a true 
world of pure pleasure. As I have made note, 
these fishes should be taken on the smallest flies, 
tied to the smallest hooks reason will establish 
as sane and rational. It would be singularly fool¬ 
ish indeed to endeavor to take them with the 
tackle you use for larger fish. The smallest, 
lightest tackle should of necessity be the me¬ 
dium. For instance, with a slim wand bamboo 
of three-ounce weight you have a rod fit for 
this subject; its gracefulness is akin to the gods. 
I say there is eminently as much pleasure, then, 
in hooking and fighting a blue-brown or red 
“pumpkin-seed” as there is in playing a bull-dog 
rainbow, and anyone who has played a rainbow to 
the last ounce of his energy knows that, to make 
this assertion, one is speaking with extreme free¬ 
dom of opinion. Light line is another important 
item of the paraphernalia, and a mist-colored 
leader, of gossamer proportions, is a valuable 
addition, assuredly the most inconspicuous in 
the water. 
Wherever there is a place where water comes 
into a lake, where there are springs near to 
shore, where the fish will congegate, there you 
will always find excellent fly-fishing for our 
common fishes, and you will realize much sport. 
I do not know how other lakes throughout the 
country are constituted in this matter of springs, 
but here in Minnesota you will find numbers of 
lakes where such conditions exist, and there is 
good fishing all the year. At the season of the 
year when the insects are abundant, and when 
the fish in the evening are rising for them, one is 
always sure of catching pretty nearly any kind of 
the common fishes. One will find from experi¬ 
ence that one must strike at once upon a rise ; 
not jerky, but deliberately. 
The writer remembers reading in this maga¬ 
zine some two or three years ago the article of a 
certain gentleman who remarked that the large 
mouth (Micropterous Salmoides) bass would 
rarely if ever rise to the artificial fly. I am not 
certain as to how his statement was made, but 
at least it was words to that effect. Large mouth 
bass will rise and take artificial flies, but not 
with the avidity evidenced by the small mouths. 
For fly-fishing for the large mouth bass, practi¬ 
cally the same tackle may be used that you have 
for trout. The largest trout flies are recom¬ 
mended, and a size-six hook is about perfect in 
my estimation, although there are those who want 
hooks even larger. 
The best I can say is that, just as you have to 
experiment with trout, so do you have to study 
the black bass. In fly-time they are always ris- 
King, the Brown Hackle, the Gary Hackle, the 
They are often slow at rising, and the results are 
not as great as those when taking the small 
mouths; but times come when many are dis¬ 
covered in a mood for inspection. The Coach¬ 
man, the Silver Doctor, the Ibis, the Grizzly 
