Forest and Stream 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1913. 
VOL. LXXX.—No. 8. 
127 Franklin St., New York. 
Little Talks About Fly-Fishing 
Chaucer {mysteriously ): 
Hush! 
Mine own true mistress is sweet Out-of-doors. 
No Whitsun lassie wears so green a kirtle, 
Nor sings so clear, nor smiles with such blue eyes 
As bonny April, winking tears away. 
Not flowers o’ silk upon an empress’ sleeve 
Can match the broidery of an English field. 
No lap of amorous lady in the land 
Welcomes her gallant as sweet Mistress Earth 
Her lover. Let Eneas have his Dido! 
Daffydowndilly is the dame for me. 
I T is said that the present winter has been 
the mildest experienced in this country since 
1843, and robins and bluebirds were deluded 
into coming North in January. 
Such being the conditions, it was but natu¬ 
ral that all members of the great fraternity of 
anglers should develop severe cases of spring 
fever at mid-winter. If buds were swelling and 
pussy willows were in bloom, it must be time 
to think of going a-fishing, and they longed to 
be up and away. But bide a wee, gentlemen, we 
must be content with the pleasures of anticipa¬ 
tion for many weeks to come, and the weather 
gods may play us many a trick before All Fools 
Day. In fact, they have just begun to get busy 
and are now giving us a taste of real wintry 
weather. Except on the riffles and swift water 
the larger trout streams are now frozen over, 
and all the land is dressed in white. We are 
expecting a good crop of ice from the ponds 
and lakes. We must all do a great deal of 
thinking before the season opens on May i, and 
in many ways this is a delightful part of the 
fisherman’s year. He is looking forward hope¬ 
fully and enjoying the best of sport in his mind. 
Anticipation plays a large part in the pleasures 
of fly-fishing, and there is really quite a lot 
of things to do. Rods and tackle must not be 
neglected until the last moment, and we must 
make good all deficiencies. There is much 
pleasure in inspecting the old stock of artificial 
flies and in buying or dressing new ones. Time 
flies fast always, and as the years pass, it seems 
to get away more and more rapidly. We have 
not days enough in the week to do all that we 
wish or intend to do. 
Last season was a good one for caddis flies 
(Trichoptera), the one with wings sloping over 
the back. Many were dun-colored, light or 
dark. I did not see as many browns as usual. 
There should be lots of them in the evening. 
The stone flies were a fair crop (those flies with 
four wings that lie flat on the body, Perlidce), 
but were not often on the water in great num¬ 
bers on the streams we fished. The well be¬ 
loved Ephemeridce (day flies) were very plenti¬ 
ful a few years ago, but they suffered much 
By THEODORE GORDON 
from great floods that played the deuce with 
the bottoms of the streams where the larva are 
in hiding. These beautiful insects, with their 
upright wings, delicate bodies and long tails, are 
found in great variety, of many colors and of 
all sizes. Also there are usually a few of the 
mosquito-like crane flies about, and land flies 
and bugs are blown on the water or seek it 
as the ants do, when they take wing in fine 
weather. A little experience enables a man to 
select suitable artificial flies for the waters he 
fishes, but we prefer imitations, or typical flies 
that are life-like and natural appearing on the 
A GOOD BASKET OF TROUT. 
water. The best of these resemble well-known 
insects in size and color, with a very few excep¬ 
tions, which may pass for bugs or be used 
simply as lures to attract the trout. Many old 
American wet flies kill well as floaters, if well 
hackled. In fact, any fly will float, if oiled, but 
we wish the dry fly to cock up and float just 
as the water-bred insects do. They are not 
afraid of the element in which they live dur¬ 
ing the greater portion of their lives. 
Many, of our insects differ greatly from 
those found in Great Britain, yet others are 
closely akin in color and size to English flies. 
All manufacturers have their own patterns, and 
considerable differences will often be noted in 
imitations which are named the same. We pre¬ 
fer to tie our own and like to think that we 
follow nature, but the longer one studies the 
insects, the less easily one is pleased with his 
counterfeits. We have been as much as two 
years at work before a pattern was really satis¬ 
factory, even though it killed trout. There is 
so much in the presentation of the fly and in 
keeping out of sight of the keen vision of the 
fish. Their eyes are practically their only pro¬ 
tection, and they quickly detect movement, yet 
they cannot distinguish form quite as we do. 
No round-eyed creature can have the clear ideas 
of forms that man with his almond-shaped win¬ 
dows, enjoys, but they see mighty well. They 
feel pretty safe in a large body of water, but 
during drouths and in the smaller class of 
streams, one must use great circumspection if 
he desires the larger fish. Again, the fishing of 
broken water, where the surface is disturbed 
by current, wind or eddies, is usually much 
easier than taking trout from smooth, calm 
water, which flows slowly, and has no great 
depth. We scare lots of trout in such places 
and seldom know it. It is most interesting to 
fish for the larger trout that have seen many 
baits and flies and have probably been hooked 
several times. One difficulty is to find them in 
position to feed and in the humor to do so, 
and the next is to place the fly softly, without 
splash, and so accurately that it will float over 
them naturally an inch or two to the right or 
left of the trout’s nose. Of course when lying 
near the top of a pool they may come some dis¬ 
tance and take quite a large fly. They are often 
ready for any food in such places, and the dis¬ 
turbed water covers any deficiencies in the fly, 
and to some extent its presentation. 
Long lists of flies are published and much 
advice has been given as to the selections to be 
made from these, but we like to know where, 
and at what time, a man expects to fish. Early 
in the season the trout will often take a big 
fly that might scare them later, and they are 
hungry and not very particular, klost of the 
duns are good, and one may need a brown or 
yellow-bodied fly. A few spinners may not come 
amiss, and many anglers like No, lo hooks. I 
like No. 12, and often use smaller sizes on low 
water. One cannot lay down rules, as I have 
raised large trout to big flies when they dis¬ 
dained midgets. You might not care tO' disturb 
yourself to go for one peanut when there were 
no more in sight. Dun is often used to indi¬ 
cate the sub image of the Ephemera, but dun- 
colored or bluish-gray flies are found among 
the American Trichoplera, light or dark. In 
old times, dun seems to have meant red, as a 
dun bull or dun cow. In some parts of the 
old country “bloa” (pertaining to the color of 
the clouds) is used instead of dun. Lead color 
might be used for the wings of many flies. 
We all have pet flies in which we have great 
confidence, and if one has confidence in his fly, 
he can devote his entire attention to presenting 
it to the trout in the most natural and attractive 
style. We doubt if we could kill good trout 
