Rainbows that “ Hop.” 
The most important thing to be considered 
in angling for rainbow trout in the vicinity of 
New York is to first find the rainbows. There 
are many streams where rainbow trout are to 
be found, but, in such a small minority that it 
does not pay to fish especially for them, though 
in nearly all these one may find good sport with 
native and brown trout. There are a few 
streams, however, where rainbow trout are 
in the majority, and where excellent sport may 
be had. 
Two years ago it was my good fortune to' 
stumble across one of these streams, resulting 
in what was perhaps the most perfect and en¬ 
joyable week of my angling experience. 
There seemed to be no difference in the gen¬ 
eral characteristics of this stream, as com¬ 
pared with others, either in the water or the 
country through which it flows, and why it 
should be sought and others deserted by this 
beauty of the West, I am at a loss to con¬ 
jecture, for it is a fact that the greatest diffi¬ 
culty has been experienced in keeping rainbows 
in streams where they are planted. They go 
down stream and do not return. Perhaps in 
this particular instance it is on account of the 
astonishing ignorance of the natives regarding 
even the first principles of trout fishing, and 
the rainbows, becoming aware of this fact, feel 
themselves safer than in other streams. 
Be this as it may, I experienced a feeling of 
wonderment when the farmer’s boy where we 
stopped informed me, a short time after my 
arrival, that the trout were “hopping,” and on 
inquiry, I found that the common term used 
to express the rising of trout was “hopping.” 
Did you ever see a trout hop? Well, your edu¬ 
cation has been neglected, for all well behaved 
trout hop, in these waters at least. My most 
lasting and amusing recollection of the place 
will be that here I first heard of trout that hop. 
I found the same farmer’s boy on the fol¬ 
lowing day fishing with a bass rod, a line about 
size C and two flies tied side by side through 
the same loop, with no leader at all. But his 
method—ah! that was a revelation. I am sure 
he felt that if he did not get a fish he might 
hook a potato, for he used his rod with exactly 
the same motion that he employed with his hoe 
in the garden. The strangest thing of all, how¬ 
ever, was that he occasionally got a trout. He 
was a good boy, however, and we showed him 
a few things before we left, for which he was 
duly grateful. He was the only angler in the 
community. 
We heard that the usual method of getting 
fish was to put out set lines, many of which we 
found and destroyed—very crude affairs—or to 
drop a stick of dynamite where it would “do 
the most good.” blowever, this latter practice, 
I believe, was rare. To friends of mine who 
arrived two days after I did, the use of the 
word “hopping” was a never-failing source of 
merriment, and I cannot think of the place 
now without its recurring to my mind. 
The pursuit of the rainbow is in many re¬ 
spects identical with that of the native trout. 
They hop freely, but seldom take the fly under 
water as brown trout do, thereby making ex¬ 
cellent subjects for the dry fly. If you are 
fishing with light tackle you will probably lose 
your first rainbow even though it be a small 
one, but without an especial interposition of 
providence, you are sure to lose him if he is 
large. 
You approach a trouty looking pool, and your 
experience with others of the family leads you 
into a feeling of confidence in your ability to 
cope with this new brother. You pursue the 
same tactics as with other trout, and in the 
course of time you have a hop—there is no mis¬ 
taking the hop of a rainbow; in nine cases out 
of ten he comes at the fly “with all sails set”— 
and then you strike. If you hook him some¬ 
thing happens quickly; so quickly, in fact, that it 
makes you gasp. You never before witnessed 
such rapidity of motion in a fish. Then you 
sit down and mend your broken leader and put 
on a new fly. Further up the stream you hook 
a small one and land him, and this revives your 
waning confidence in yourself; and then, after 
missing a couple more, you hook a pounder. 
Not an instant does he wait to collect himself 
or to study a plan of escape, as some brown 
trout seem to do, but from the moment that he 
feels the hook until he has put to the test every 
inch of your tackle and sent tingling through 
your veins blood that you did not know you 
had before, he is a perfect devil. Things hap¬ 
pen in such quick succession that you stand 
bewildered. Up into the air the first instant, 
and then perhaps four or five leaps in as many 
seconds, with lightning-like dashes between 
each, and then down stream. Do not stop to 
consider your dignity, for he who hesitates is 
lost. Run! Yes, pick up your feet and follow 
fast until he takes it into his head to turn, then 
back up the stream more slowly, through two 
or three pools through which you have just 
descended, to the starting point; and then, 
when most trout would be tired out, he puts 
up the greatest resistance you ever saw, fight¬ 
ing to the very last gasp. 
On the arrival of my two companions we 
went down stream for the afternoon fishing, 
one going above and the other below me. That 
afternoon I made my best catch, landing at 
least fifty and once taking a brace. All of 
ordinary size were returned to the water, but 
when we quit at dark I had sixteen in my 
basket, all over nine inches in length, and the 
largest fifteen inches. My friend above had 
fine fishing also, but the one below was a 
wobegone spectacle when we met. He said 
he had fallen on his thumb when he first started 
fishing and sprained it so badly that he could 
not do himself justice afterward. Now there is 
only one thing that I know of to make a man 
fall on his thumb, and that is to have his first 
rainbow a big one. That was what happened 
to my friend below, and it overcame him. 
The following day alternate casting was pro¬ 
posed, an arrangement which was new to me. 
My companion had first chance and cast until 
he had a hop, then gave way to me, whether he 
hooked his fish or not, and I continued casting 
until I had a hop, when I gave way to him. 
This was kept up all morning, gradually work¬ 
ing up stream, and furnished most enjoyable 
sport. It gave me an opportunity to study the 
other fellow’s style of casting and his method of 
working his fly on the water, and one can al¬ 
ways benefit by watching someone else in 
action. It also permitted a fuller appreciation 
of the marvelous beauty of the fish. One is 
so intent upon the business in hand when play¬ 
ing a rainbow that little time can be spent in 
admiration until it is over, but stand at one 
side and watch your companions fish and, 
though you have caught many, you will still 
wonder at its colors, those beautiful opalescent 
lights and shades. These colors fade rapidly 
upon capture of the fish, and five minutes after 
being taken from the water they are gone. 
Therefore to see the rainbow truly you must 
see him alive, and to appreciate him fully you 
must catch him yourself and witness his capture 
by someone else as well. 
There was one disappointment, however, 
which I must report in speaking of the rain¬ 
bow, that I may be fair toward other trout, and 
that is that he cannot compare in any way as a 
food fish with either the native or the brown 
trout. The meat is white and looks good, but 
the flavor is lacking. I did not notice any color 
variations in the meat such as one finds in 
other trout. Our last day was a failure for me, 
while both of my companions had excellent 
sport. I took but five worth keeping. 
Last spring we made our second trip to this 
same stream, but before going agreed not to 
kill more than five fish a day each, so that the 
rainbow ranks might not be depleted. This 
agreement resulted in great good to the stream, 
returning as we did at least one hundred trout 
of keepable size, and taught us also that it is 
not all of fishing to bring in a big mess. I 
think we enjoj^ed putting back the fish, with the 
knowledge of the good that would result, more 
than we did the keeping of the few that we 
brought in. 
One of the illustrations shows one day’s 
catch by two of the party. Ten trout all over 
twelve inches, and the largest, a brown, which 
you see in the front row, a little over sixteen. 
Of these six were rainbows, two browns and 
two natives. 
On this occasion I caught a trout which 
at first sight was a most peculiar freak. I was 
casting up a little rift and hooked a fish. In¬ 
stead of the usual fight, this fish turned over 
and over in the water, like a boy turning cart¬ 
wheels, and then gave up quickly. When I 
lifted him out with the net I saw that his eyes 
were sticking out of his head “like crab’s 
eyes,” as my companion expressed it, and I 
thought I had a new species of fish, but upon 
looking closely I found that this was caused 
by the leader being wound tightly around his 
