86o 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 29, 1909. 
Little Talks About Fly-Fishing. 
Sullivan County, N. Y., May 22.— Editor 
Forest and Strcajii: The snow that fell early 
in May and covered the ground for three days 
benefited the streams and the country generally. 
As there was no frost in the ground the slowlj^ 
melting snow and sleet was absorbed by the soil 
and should maintain a good head of water for 
some time to come. The reservoirs of the 
springs have been filled. When fine weather 
began, about the 8th of May, all the trout waters 
were bank full and wading the larger streams 
was not too easy. 
Natural flies appeared in considerable num¬ 
bers and the trout began to take the artificial 
insects in earnest. Some very good baskets of 
trout have been caught, but the average size 
was not large. 'I'he cream of the fishing will 
soon be skimmed, as all the free, waters are 
heavily fished. In the early part of the season 
the rise of flies does not begin until mid-day 
or later, and may not continue more than an 
hour or two. During this time the best and 
liveliest sport of the day is usually to be had 
and the angler should be on a good portion of 
the stream he is fishing where he knows there 
are plenty of trout. Sometimes there are very 
few flies on the water, yet the trout are in the 
humor to feed during the greater part of the 
day. It is well to observe the water closely on 
our first day out and ascertain as far as possi¬ 
ble what is likely to occur during our short stay 
upon the stream. As soon as warm weather 
begins a change may be looked for. There may 
he a rise of flies early in the morning and again 
late in the afternoon. However, the hours be¬ 
tween 10 A. M. and 3 P. M. are frequently the 
best for filling the creel. The largest takes I 
have seen in this region have been made be¬ 
tween 10 and 2 o’clock. 
The sun is a good friend of the fly-fisher early 
in the season, taking the chill from the water 
and bringing up the natural flies. Later on his 
power becomes too great and we welcome the 
clouds which shelter us from his burning rays. 
An overcast sky with occasional showers may 
assist us considerably; in fact, after a hot and 
hopeless morning an army of clouds has sud¬ 
denly appeared and marched across the sky, a 
fresh, cool breeze drifting up the stream, rip¬ 
pling the calm surface of the pool. In a few 
minutes small flies will be seen rising from the 
water, others sailing placidly upon the surface 
and the little chaps of a different species flop¬ 
ping and skittering about. The attention of the 
trout is attracted and they come strong on the 
feed. Rises are seen in all directions. They 
are very busy and soon we are busy, too. A day 
of perspiring disappointment and defeat has be¬ 
come a memorable occasion, to be marked with 
a white stone and never entirely forgotten. May 
we all have many such before embarking finally 
for a sail on the river Styx. I will bet that old 
Charon has a “put-put” ferry now. 
I have some of the barbless hooks made by 
Seth Green or Monroe Green, his brother. 
Those made from needles are good for small 
trout, but the larger ones make a very ugly 
fly. So long as worms, minnows and other baits 
on quite large hooks are constantly used for 
trout it is not worth while to consider the ques¬ 
tion of removing the barbs from small fly hooks. 
An angler who handles the small fish he catches 
carefully and returns them gently to the water 
will kill very few undersized trout. I have seen 
thousands of small trout taken with hooks from 
brooks to stock preserves and very few died. 
Roys and men received a cent apiece for these 
little trout. This practice was stopped, I think, 
a good many 3'ears ago. 
Theodore Gordon. 
Wyoming Trouting. 
Cheyenne, Wyo., May 15.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Every angler of Cheyenne will turn 
out on Sunday, June 13, with his trout tackle 
to catch fish for a trout dinner that is to be 
given by the Cheyenne Industrial Club to the 
members of the Chicago Association of Com¬ 
merce, who will stop over in this city on their 
way to the Seattle Exposition, for dinner on 
Monday, June 14. Cheyenne “boosters” wish to 
provide the prominent Chicago business men who 
will he on this trip with a meal that will be en¬ 
tirely different from what they get in the Windy 
City, and with this purpose in view the Indus¬ 
trial Club has offered handsome cash prizes for 
the largest trout and bass, and the largest catches 
of these fish which abound in the mountain 
streams near this city in large numbers. 
In addition to the fine fresh native fish which 
will be served in Western style, every other 
article of food served on the table will be a 
Cheyenne or Laramie county product. The 
menu will give the name of the producer, manu¬ 
facturer or grower, and such a meal will open 
the eyes of our Eastern cousins as to some of 
the products of the wild and wooly State of 
Wyoming. 
General Walter D. Moody, of the association, 
has addressed a letter to the Industrial Club 
accepting the invitation. W. A. Bartlett. 
The Angler as a Political Force. 
According to the Deutsche Fischerei-Zeitung 
there is about to be a monster demonstration 
against the pollution of rivers in Belgium. 
Twenty-five thousand anglers are to parade 
through the streets of Brussels. From 7,000 to 
8,000 of these will be inhabitants of the city. 
The remainder will be conveyed from all parts 
of the country to the capital in special excur¬ 
sion trains. The Belgian anglers point out that 
whereas they pay the Government 200,000 francs 
per annum for the right to fish, the industries 
which pollute the streams only pay the State a 
beggarly 40,000. The Belgian elections are now 
close at hand, and explicit assurances on the 
subject of river pollution are being demanded 
of all the candidates in angling constituencies.— 
Fishing Gazette. 
Pennsylvania Trout. 
Allentown, Pa., May 15. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Horace Lutz and Bill Keeny recently 
made a trip to Newville, Pa., returning with a 
catch of thirteen nice trout by Mr. Lutz and 
four by Mr. Keeny. Mr. Safing returned with 
a string of fifty redfins, the result of an hour’s 
catch along the little Lehigh. 
A dozen cans of pickerel fry were received 
from the Towesdale hatchery by the members 
of the Hercules Gun Club and planted in the 
different streams. A. K. Ludwig. 
Mr. Fearing’a Angling Library. ' 
A LITTLE more than two centuries and a half 
ago there appeared on the bookstalls in Eng¬ 
land at the modest price of one and sixpence 
a quaint little volume bearing the title. “The 
Compleat Angler; or, the Contemplative Man’s 
Recreation.” Its description of nature, its sage 
reflections on manners and customs and the 
everyday problems of life, and, beyond all else, 
the genial humanity which shone through its 
every page, won for it quick popularity. 
It was a book to pick up in a leisure half- 
hour and skim with the assurance of a quiet 
pleasure which few volumes of to-day can con¬ 
vey. So it happened that “The Compleat 
Angler” met with a ready sale in its first 
edition. 
Perhaps it was because of the low price at 
which it was sold that copies of this little book 
of 250 years ago have disappeared so amazingly. 
Some were left in stage coaches, derelicts 
whose mission was ended after they had be¬ 
guiled the weary hours of a journey; some were 
lost in garrets, and some burned in house fires, 
until to-day nobody knows how many have 
outlived the passage of the years. 
One thing, however, is known—that the man 
who owns two or three copies of this first 
edition of a one^nd-six-penny book has the 
equivalent of a comfortable little fortune. 
There are few volumes which to-day find a 
readier sale to bibliophiles than this innocent 
effort of Walton’s, and it is only at intervals 
that one comes to market. When it does, as 
last month at Sotheby’s, in London, it is the 
object of spirited bidding, indicative of the 
value attaching to it. The copy sold at 
Sotheby’s brought £1,085 sterling, or approxi¬ 
mately $5,200. At a previous auction a copy, 
now owned by J. Pierpont Morgan, brought 
£1.290, or nearly $6,500. 
That the library of Daniel B. Fearing, of 
Newport, contains two copies of the “first 
Walton” may be accepted as an index to the 
wealth of his remarkable collection of books 
on fishing, fish culture, and all allied subjects 
—the largest collection in the world, in the 
opinion of Mr. Fearing, whose acquaintance 
with all the famous collectors permits him to 
speak with authority. For nearly seventeen 
years he has been in the market for every sort 
of work on fishes and fishing, with the result 
that he now has in the beautiful rooms at “The 
Cliffs” upward of 7,000 volumes, many of them 
unique and of a value quite impossible on that 
account to estimate. 
The assembler of this great library is a native 
Newporter and a former Mayor of that city. 
His interest in books on fish and fishing is the 
outgrowth of love of the sport of fishing and 
a taste for natural history, and he is fortunate 
in having ample means for the gratification of 
these likes. A glance at the list of clubs and 
societies of which he is a member reveals the 
catholicity of his interests. Included are the 
New York Geographical Society and the Asiatic 
Society of Japan, of which he is a life member: 
the Newport Historical Society, of which he 
was formerly treasurer; the Natural Blistory 
Society, the Fly-Fishers’ Club of London, the 
Suffolk Club on Long Island, and the Triton 
Club, Canada. 
One meeting Mr. Fearing now in his library. 
