784 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June 21, 1913 
Sensationai Dry-Fly in Nova Scotia 
By THEODORE GORDON 
W AY back in 1912 I wrote to Dr. Breck to 
the effect that if he would send me a 
few of his Nova Scotia May flies in a 
weak solution of formalin, I would try to imi¬ 
tate them to the best of my ability. This offer 
was made in good faith, but Dr. Breck has prob¬ 
ably not realized that it meant the expenditure 
of considerable labor and pains. 
It might be necessary to test the flies and 
correct the coloration from life, but once the 
pattern is found to kill well, good fly-makers 
can be found to duplicate it. 
Dr. Breck’s writings are always interesting, 
and his experience has been great, but in this 
instance he has a theory that the dry fly is no 
use in Nova Scotia. Given the natural flies and 
the trout taking them freely and the whole ques¬ 
tion resolves itself into a good imitation pre¬ 
sented in a natural way. I have had his experi¬ 
ence on many streams where there was a really 
heavy rise of the species of natural fly day after 
day. Men would complain that before the rise 
they were having sport; after the flies appeared 
they had poor success. Invariably so far as my 
experience goes, it was necessary only to offer 
a really good imitation in size and color. One 
might have to dress half a dozen before one 
could please the trout. Again a rather poor 
copy would kill if the trout were strong on 
the feed. 
The conditions described by Dr. Breck are 
first those which interest the lover of the float¬ 
ing fly. They call upon him to do his darndest 
to succeed. I am no purist or ultra purist, and 
fish wet when I feel inclined that way, but the 
more one fishes the greater his enjoyment when 
problems of this kind present themselves. The 
Perlidse, caddis flies, etc., flutter and buzz, but 
the Ephemeridse usually sail down serenely after 
coming out of the nymphal stage. Nowadays 
they are not so plentiful as they were ten years 
ago, but we had good rises nearly every day 
during that nasty weather in May. 
I have been ill and am even more stupid in 
expressing myself than usual. I willingly ad¬ 
mit that conditions vary greatly in different 
waters, but given the flies in the water and trout 
feeding upon them, I feel confident that the per¬ 
severing dry-fly man will succeed not only in 
taking fish, but some of the very largest, pro¬ 
vided that they are rising steadily. No doubt 
there is a very great deal in the manner in 
which the artificial fly is presented. The best 
of our artificials are far from perfect, but if 
one can get the effect of the natural fly in the 
water, he usually has sport. One gets a pretty 
good pattern occasionally at the first attempt, 
but more frequently improvements are required. 
I have fussed with a bug for two seasons be¬ 
fore I felt satisfied that I could do no better. 
It is not necessary to go to Nova Scotia 
to have Dr. Breck’s delightful experience. I 
have had the same in New York and Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and at least once in Maine. It is a beauti¬ 
ful problem and well worth a little study and 
effort. 
If Dr. Breck wishes to fish the dry fly from 
a canoe, he must either handle the canoe him¬ 
self or have a man who understands what he 
is trying to do. Why use an orange leader? 
It is far more difficult to fish quiet water 
than where the surface is ruffled or rippled by 
breeze or currents. With a strong bias against 
the floating fly in the United States, I doubt if 
it would be worth while to work hard on imita¬ 
tions. 
In Defense of the Bait Fisherman. 
BY TALBOT DENMEAD. 
With abject apologies to the dry-fly fisher¬ 
man, I wish to state that bait fishing for brook 
trout is a science. 
Because said dry-fly fisherman can take a 
foreign fraud and a four-ounce rod and fish up 
stream and take a goodly trout, there is no rea¬ 
son why he should put himself on a pedestal 
and look down upon his more lowly brother of 
the wet-fly or the garden hackle, who is less 
expert perhaps, but who loves the mountain 
streams and the speckled beauties just as much 
as the dry-fly artist. It really is not nice of 
him to be so uncharitable tO‘ his brother angler. 
Mind, I am not saying a word against the 
dry- or wet-fly fisherman, or that his way is not 
the right way or maybe the best way, but the 
angler for brook trout with light tackle and 
bait should not unceremoniously be cast with 
the pot fisher, the fish hog and other such 
swine; there must be some middle ground where 
the man with the bait can fish in peace and not 
have some one always stepping on his toes. I 
am not a bait-fisherman for trout altogether, 
having caught them with fly as well as with 
bait, but I have found there are certain streams, 
generally very small ones, which contain deep 
holes running under roots and into deep banks 
and around stumps and logs where it is abso¬ 
lutely impossible to catch a trout on a fly for 
the very simple reason that fish cannot see 
through a solid substance, and a fly on the sur¬ 
face of the water outside of his lair might just 
as well be in Simple Simon’s Mother’s pail for 
all the good it will do. Of course, the dyed-in- 
the-wool dry-fly expert will say wait until he 
comes out. Very nice, but he rarely comes out 
until some one sends a nice juicy worm bounc¬ 
ing along the bottom where Sir Fontinalis can 
at least get a look at it. 
Then when he does come out of said dark 
and covered hole after the aforesaid tempting 
morsel, have you got him? No sir! It is one 
trick to coax him out, another trick to hook 
him without tangling your whole outfit in the 
overgrowth, another to keep him from taking a 
turn around some projecting snag, and a few 
more to get him out on the high bank, where 
you can get your hands on him, or sit on him 
if you like—anything to prevent him from jump¬ 
ing off’ the hook and gracefully balancing him¬ 
self on the end of his tail and projecting himself 
back into the water. Oh! it is a science all 
right—if you get any fish. I can show Mr. 
Dry-Fly Man a dear little babbling brook not 
far from civilization where there are a few fat 
fish left, but he won’t hurt them. He will come 
out of that jungle minus his tackle and his re¬ 
ligion, if he has any, but no fish. 
I hear som.e one in the amen corner say, 
“But it is not all of fishing to fish.” Very true, 
that is why so many of the fraternity go after 
tadpoles instead of trout—perhaps. Personally 
I like to see a .fish or two with speckles on their 
sides when I go after trout; I want them over 
eight inches long from tip to tip; I want to 
catch them on light tackle; I don’t want them 
all, but would leave some for the other fellow. 
If I really did not want to catch a trout or two 
I would not go and neither would you. 
Remember, I am not criticising the fly 
fishermen, but I simply want to say a word in 
behalf of some very good sportsmen who have 
been accused of taking an unfair advantage of 
one of the greatest fish the world produces by 
using the fish’s natural food—men who would 
not take an unfair advantage of a comrade, who 
would stand aside and let said comrade fish the 
most likely hole, or take the shot over the 
standing dog, and whose tackle box is always 
open to the fisherman “up a tree.” 
Please do not consign these men to the 
Fishermen’s Purgatory. 'We do not ask for 
love, but for goodness sake be charitable. Do 
you get me? 
Remember, the Immortal Izaak was a bait 
fisher. “Nay, good scholar; I caught my last 
trout with a worm; now I will put on a min¬ 
now.” 
Illinois Casting Club. 
Chicago, Ill., June 9 . —Editor Forest and 
Stream: The unpropitious wind, having a 
velocity of thirty-two miles an hour, on Satur¬ 
day, June 7, precluded all events scheduled for 
that day. The following day was only a little 
better, the velocity being twenty miles, but the 
head winds were so variable that good scores 
were impossible. However, the half-ounce accu¬ 
racy and half-ounce distance baits were cast, and 
the accuracy 
and salmon fly postponed. 
The 
scores of June 8 follow: 
Half-ounce 
accuracy bait: 
— 
C. McCarthy 
. 98.5 
Tice . 
... 97.6 
C. W. Grant . 
.98.7 
Humphreys _... 
... 96.8 
Amman . 
. 97.9 
McFarlin . 
... 97.5 
Huntly . 
. 96.7 
Anway . 
... 95.4 
Whitby . 
. 98. 
Kernaghan . 
... 98.9 
Swisher . 
. 98.2 
Hornstein . 
... 97.1 
Moffett . 
. 97. 
Hoxey . 
... 97.7 
McCandless .. 
.97. 
Heller . 
... 90.8 
Tournier . 
. 97.4 
Re-entry: 
McCandless .. 
. 95.8 
Half-ounce 
distance bait. 
feet: 
Kernaghan ... 
.143 
Wehle . 
. 130 
Swisher . 
Moffett . 
. 41 3-5 
C. McCarthy . 
. 140 2-5 
Amman . 
. 53 1-5 
C. W. Grant .. 
. 114 4-5 
*C. E. Lingenfelter 208 3-5 
*Guest. 
Brother Linder’s score in the quarter-ounce 
bait. May 24, should have been 99.1, and Brother 
Amman’s in the dry-fly accuracy at the Chicago 
Fly-Casting Club’s tournament. May 25, 99 2/15. 
The next contest will be June 21, and the 
events will be quarter-ounce bait, quarter-ounce 
distance bait, delicacy fly and light tackle dry-fly 
accuracy. J. D. Anway, Sec’y. 
New York’s Senators and Assemblymen 
are going to kill three bills to reopen the shoot¬ 
ing of wildfowl in January, and two bills to re¬ 
open the sale of game. 
