Jan. 23, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
a typical rift. Assume that the rift starts from 
a stretch of still water. As we stand looking 
across the stream, an irregular but plainly de¬ 
fined line marks where the water begins to drop. 
Above that line is a smooth glossy surface; 
below it are waves. Now examine the irregular 
line more closely. Do you notice that in two 
or three places along it peculiarly smooth bar¬ 
rel-shaped swells occur? There is a boulder un¬ 
der each of those swells, and more than likely 
trout are hiding around them. But before at¬ 
tempting to catch one of these fish, look again 
at the irregular line. Notice that in one place 
it forms a very distinct V, with the point of 
the V perhaps ten or twenty feet down stream. 
It appears as though a wedge-shaped section of 
the smooth water lapped down on to the rift. 
This is caused by a slight channel, and as trout 
like to lie in channels, all parts of this V-shaped 
space should be'searched with the fly, particu¬ 
larly the point -and sides. 
We have never been able to find a satisfactory 
reason why trout stayed so closely at the heads 
of rifts, unless it is that they live in the still 
water above and drop down there to feed. This 
is not a really good explanation, for nearly all 
the fish found in such places are small, and if 
it is the trout’s habit to go there for food, it 
would seem that the larger ones would practice 
it also. I have been told that late in the season 
big fish can be found there, but I have never 
taken one of more than medium size. 
How the angler will proceed to capture some 
of the fish at the head of this rift depends very 
much upon whether he practices wet or dry fly¬ 
casting. The dry-fly fisherman will go below 
the barrel-like swells and the V-shaped place, 
and casting up-stream, attempt to make his fly 
float down over them. He will meet with some 
difficulty in doing this, for his line is more than 
likely to be drawn under and submerge his flies; 
in fact, this is not his kind of water, and he 
labors here at great disadvantage. In time we 
will consider a section of the creek where the 
advantage is his, but that will be some distance 
from the rift. 
Many wet-fly anglers would wade into the 
water we are discussing, and standing at a point 
about opposite the swells, cast their fly diagonally 
up-stream, letting it float down with the cur¬ 
rent. This method also has its weakness. With 
one end of the line attached to the angler, and 
its middle being rushed along by the current, the 
fly will be drawn rapidly across the swell. A 
submerged fly racing at right angles to the cur¬ 
rent is such an unnatural object that the most 
gullible trout soon becomes suspicious. 
I think the majority of anglers would be in¬ 
clined to solve the problem by going into the 
still water thirty or forty feet above the swell, 
and casting across stream, allowing line enough 
so that when the fly has floated down it would 
come to a momentary rest just at the edge of 
the swell. Then if no strike occurred, the opera¬ 
tion could be repeated a number of times with 
slightly increased line until all the surface about 
the swell had been covered. But as if to show 
how very human all methods of fly-casting are, 
this last one displays objectionable features as 
well as the others. When the fly reaches the 
point where a strike is expected, it is down 
stream from the angler, and if a trout is hooked, 
it has the swift current to assist it in tearing 
loose. But in spite of that we usually select 
this position from which to fish the head of a 
rift, because it allows the fly to be suspended 
for an instant on the very spot we are striving 
to reach. 
There is another important reason. By some 
peculiar process of fish logic the brown trout 
frequently select the up-stream sides of boulders 
for their homes. With the swift current batter¬ 
ing against them, it would at first appear that 
this was an untenable position for any fish. 
However, the laws of friction indicate that there 
must be a small triangular body of water at the 
bottom of the creek on the up-stream side of 
boulders which remains comparatively fixed. 
The brown trout take advantage of this very 
Irascible angler who has not had a rise all day: 
"There [throwing his fly-book into the stream^, take 
your choice!’’ 
Frona an old print in the Woodward Collection. 
generally, and often the rainbows do the same. 
Remembering this fact of location, it is easy 
to see that a fly let down from up-stream can 
cover the bulge ahead of the boulder more satis¬ 
factorily than one cast from the side or from 
below. In the last two cases the fly simply 
touches the swell and is snatched away by the 
current, while the fly floated down from above 
is suspended over the swell at the discretion 
of the angler. 
In more cases than one, the man who is fish¬ 
ing this bit of water from above will find him¬ 
self in the proper position in case he hooks a 
fish. The majority of trout taken at the heads 
of rifts live in the still water above, and like 
all of us, as soon as they get into trouble they 
want to run home. But in case the fish proves 
to be a willful-minded chap and starts down 
stream, the angler must work to shore as rapidly 
as possible and be prepared to follow along the 
rift until he finds a quiet bit of water in which 
to land his catch. 
A good many theories have been advanced 
about the proper direction from which to cast 
141 
for trout, and some quite rigid rules have been 
laid down, but it is a difficult matter to settle 
and make it stay settled. No two members of 
the “Camp Don't Hurry” crowd have ever been 
able to agree upon the subject, and no two ang¬ 
lers whom I have ever watched appeared to 
be of the same mind. The only places where 
uniformity of direction seems to exist is in 
books and upon the quiet rivers of England. I 
suspect the real pith of it all is that when one 
is fishing a turbulent American trout stream he 
must choose his direction for casting after he 
has seen the spot to be reached, and not before 
he arrives at the stream. 
The thing he is after is to fairly catch the 
fish. Once he has decided where the trout is 
hiding he must cast in whatever direction the 
brush, the currents, the possibilities of wading 
and the probabilities of landing the catch dictate. 
If he gets the fly to go over the fish like some 
natural object that it wants, I do not believe it 
matters where it is cast from, even if it comes 
from a balloon; in fact, the angler often finds 
places where a balloon would be convenient. 
In the next paper we will proceed with our 
young angler down the rift and try to locate for 
him some likely looking spots. 
WiNFiEi.n T. Sherwood. 
Fishing Around San Franc sco. 
San Francisco, Cal., Jan. 16 . —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Up to about a week ago there had 
been some of the finest bass fishing experienced 
in the vicinity of San Francisco that had ever 
been no-ted here. Lately, however, conditions 
have changed so that anglers have not been 
meeting with very fair success, but much of 
this is attributed to the tides and unfavorable 
weather conditions. Striped bass fishing has 
been furnishing local anglers with a large 
amount of sport during the past few years and 
the present season has been a particularly fortu¬ 
nate one. Last season it was noted that the 
biggest run of these fish was in the vicinity of 
San Antone, but for some reason they have de¬ 
serted that locality this season to a large de¬ 
gree, and the largest catches are now reported 
from the sloughs in the neighborhood of Wingo. 
One of the most notable features of the sport 
this season has been the uniformly large size 
of the fish taken. In former years it was a 
very unusual thing to take a striped bass in 
local waters weighing more than twenty-five 
pounds, but this has been a very common occur¬ 
rence this year and many are being taken that 
tip the scales at from thirty to thirty-five 
pounds. About a month ago a heavy run of 
these fish made its appearance and every one 
who went out to Wingo had fish to bring home. 
Some anglers have been making trips to this 
favorite fishing spot every Sunday since the 
season opened, and in many cases have averaged 
four and five fish for each visit. 
The steelhead trout season is now on, but so 
far there have not been many large catches made 
owing to unfavorable weather conditions. Just 
before Christmas there was a spell of clear 
weather, and a number of enthusiasts made 
trips to the Russian River in the vicinity of 
Duncan’s Mills and met with fair sport there. 
The fish in the stream were declared to be in 
excellent condition, and the sport, while not 
up to the standard set last year, was the best 
