Where Barefoot Boys Look for 
Trout.—IV. 
All the different hiding places for trout so 
far described have been in swift, rough water, 
and here it appears that wet-fly angling has 
decidedly the advantage over the dry system. 
I have had very little experience with dry flies 
myself and my ideas are largely formed from 
watching the endless procession of anglers that 
one sees, who loaf for months at a time by the 
side of a well-known stream. There are some 
kinds of water which it seems the Creator made 
purposely for the delight of the dry-fly angler, 
but I do not think that it was the intention 
when the rifts were being formed. Perhaps 
there are those who could explain and demon¬ 
strate how to prevent the line from being 
grasped by the swift current of a rift and the 
submerging of the fly, but I certainly cannot. 
I tried a dry fly on the rapids a few times last 
season and—well, it was dry fishing all right. 
I am inclined to think that on our turbulent 
streams there are proper places for both 
methods, just as there are proper places for the 
sugar tongs and the wheelbarrow, but they are 
far from being the same place. Perhaps the 
greatest objection to one’s becoming too much 
addicted to the dry fly is that frequently it 
tempts him to cast where he can make his fly 
float, rather than where he is certain there is 
a trout. I have often watched men casting on 
rough water when it seemed to me that they 
aimed at every little smooth spot—which was 
exactly where the fish was not. However, a 
little paraffin oil on a fly helps it, even for wet 
fishing. 
In swift water there is no occasion to draw 
the fly; the current will attend to all the motion 
that is necessary; in fact, the longer one fishes 
the less places he will find where there is need 
of drawing the fly. In rough water there is 
little danger of casting too many times over 
the same spot. I believe I have taken more 
trout after the fifth cast than before it. As I 
have already mentioned, when fishing the chan¬ 
nels at the foot of rifts I often cast as many 
as fifty times. In such water the fish is more 
likely not to have seen our first cast than he 
is to have been scared away by it. 
Some advocate repeated casting on the theory 
that the trout become angry at the fly and at¬ 
tempt to rid themselves of a nuisance. That 
doctrine has not quite so good a foundation 
when applied to trout as to salmon, for trout 
are certainly in the habit of feeding in the 
streams, as the mortuary records of the minnow 
tribe must show. 
Investing trout with such irritability of tem¬ 
perament seems a little like unloading quite a 
burden of human weakness upon them. Some¬ 
times I have wondered if by the repeated float¬ 
ing of the same fly over a fish he did not come 
to believe that a new variety of insect had ap¬ 
peared. If so, it is easy to imagine that after 
seeing them float in such abundance he is 
tempted to try a sample and learn if they are 
good to eat. But any suggestion on the subject 
is mere speculation. The trout has his reason 
for this eleventh hour rising and he will prob¬ 
ably always keep it to himself. 
Last season we attempted to learn something 
upon the subject, but the result was only a par¬ 
tial success. There was a high bridge over the 
Esopus near our stopping place, and a large 
brown trout lay under it for several days. In 
a little time he became accustomed to our watch¬ 
ing and showed no fear when two heads were 
thrust over the railing. That he had an ex¬ 
cellent mathematical brain could be seen when¬ 
ever a third party attempted to join us in the 
inspection. On such occasions he would sail 
away, but he maintained a praiseworthy degree 
of dignity in the departure. Once a couple of 
ladies stopped beside us and allowed their 
curiosity to get the better of them to the ex¬ 
tent of peeking, too. This was more than the 
fish could stand. He became terror stricken and 
his flight was precipitate. To this day we are 
unable to decide whether the fright was arith¬ 
metical or just merry widow hats. 
We tried an experiment by which we hoped 
to get some information or a fish. I stayed on 
the bridge and watched while Robert went into 
the creek, and with a very long line cast a 
small dry fly about six feet up stream from 
the trout. For the first five casts I could see 
nothing to indicate that he saw the fly as it 
floated down over him. Then for three or four 
more casts he would swing a little as the lure 
passed, reminding me of the way a magnetic 
needle is deflected when one is handling his 
jackknife near it. Afterward he made one real 
start for the fly, going perhaps a couple of feet 
and returning instantly to his former position. 
Now to return to our search for the hiding 
places of trout. The last one discussed was the 
channel at the foot of the rift. This channel 
usually terminates in one of two ways. The 
water may flow straight ahead, in which case it 
is likely to spread itself out among the boulders 
into a rapid running section of the stream with 
a somewhat broken surface and uneven bottom. 
In cases where this bottom is well sprinkled 
with rocks and boulders it affords about the 
best general fishing to be found on the whole 
creek. If one can first find a little rise of 
ground from which he may look down into the 
water and locate the hidden rocks and broken 
channels, he will find it to his advantage. No 
part of this section should be carelessly passed 
over. A fly should be placed above and below 
every rock; every channel should be thoroughly 
tested and every dark, mysterious looking spot 
should have careful attention. Trout are very 
apt to make their homes in places where there 
will be water at a time of drouth, and in good 
fishing stages these places will look dark. In 
this part of the stream the dry fly and the wet 
fly are on nearly equal terms, so one may fol¬ 
low his preference without paying a very heavy 
tax in the way of lost opportunities. 
Now, the other manner in which the channel 
at the foot of a rift sometimes terminates is in 
dashing diagonally against a great rock or high 
bank. In this case the stream will be deflected. 
The rock or bank takes the force of the water 
and the result is a large pool, deep, dark and 
turbulent near its upper end, but spreading out 
to a fan-shaped glassy shallow at its lower ex¬ 
tremity. Usually the action of the water has 
hollowed out a sort of cave under the rock or 
bank. In this cave great fish lie hidden and I 
am inclined to think that so far as I am per¬ 
sonally concerned they will stay there until the 
crack of doom. 
Although such spots are the most tempting 
looking places to fish that I have ever seen, I 
have never taken a trout over fourteen inches 
long from them. Robert and Old Billy have 
had no end of good luck in these holes, and 
Jim has shared their fortune, but to me they 
have proven a delusion. My hopes always rise 
when I see that I am approaching one, but when 
I have tried it I invariably have to leave my 
hopes behind unsatisfied. Were I of colored 
extraction I am inclined to think that I should 
believe there vi'as a hoodoo bigger than a wood¬ 
chuck in every one of these caves. 
The trout in such places appear to grade 
along in size from big ones in the deep, dark 
water down to small specimens, as the bottom 
seems to rise to meet the surface near the foot 
of the pool. Generally I can get one of these 
little fish, but that is all. To fish this water 
successfully one should be on the side of the 
creek opposite to the rock or bank. The bottom 
here will usually slope gently from the shore 
line, giving the angler an opportunity to wade 
as far as necessary toward the deeper part of 
the stream. In this position the fisherman has 
all the advantage over the trout when it comes 
to the play and landing. Here he can prevent 
his catch from running under the rocks and 
sawing the leader in two, and he can guide him 
to shallow water for landing. If one attempts 
to fish the pool from its deep side he not only 
has difficulty in making the fly move naturally, 
but he may find himself in the awkward position 
of trying to play a fish which has quietly sailed 
under the rock on which he is standing and is 
rasping the line along the edge, hunting for a 
crevice to wedge it into. 
These same reasons apply in selecting which 
shore to fish from on nearly all parts of a 
stream. Generally speaking, on large streams 
keep to the shallow side and wade far enough 
into the water so that you can reach the chan¬ 
nel. Of course it is not intended that this shall 
be followed to the extent of having the sun at 
one’s back and so casting alarming shadows. 
Now for a time let us leave the rough, rapid 
waters on which we have so far been working 
and go to a long, broad, glossy stretch. In the 
lower Esopus these places are sometimes a 
couple of hundred yards long and as many feet 
wide. Many anglers seem to imagine that no 
trout could possibly be in these beautiful mirror¬ 
ing pools. They evidently take the little dimples 
that frequently appear on the surface near the 
shaded shore for the sporting of minnows. 
