Jan. 6, 1912.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
13 
country; with masses of evergreens covered with 
flowers; with ferns of many sorts growing even 
to the water’s edge; immense masses of rocks 
strewn everywhere; with pebbles of every shape 
and of varied colors; and the flowery kingdom 
well represented from March to December, and 
then do not forget the trout that are waiting 
for the angler in 
every pool and every 
riffle. 
It is only the lover 
of the woods, fields 
and streams that can 
fully appreciate a 
trout stream with all 
its beauty and all its 
possibilities. Some 
say it is too rough; 
others, “How can you 
bury yourself all day 
in such a wild p'ace 
and wade all alone 
miles from anyone? 
And for what?’’ 
After all, to the 
true sportsman with 
rod or gun, it is not 
all in killing game or 
fish, still we want to 
be able on our return 
from our angling trip 
or from partridge or 
quail or deer hunting 
to have trout in our 
creels or birds in our 
hunting coats, or deer 
as the case may be. 
In Western North 
Carolina we always 
feel when we go “fish¬ 
ing for fish’’ that we 
can count on catching 
some. Personally, 
trout is my fish, and 
the killing of the 
trout with the arti¬ 
ficial fly. Two years 
ago I discontinued 
the fly tied on barbed 
hooks and see no rea¬ 
son now after two 
seasons’ fishing to re¬ 
turn to it. Every 
trout that can escape 
from my barbless 
flies is certainly wel¬ 
come to its liberty. 
It is common prac¬ 
tice in fishing in our 
waters with artificial 
flies to place upon the 
point of the hook a 
“stick b a i t,’’ the 
caddis fly before it 
emerges from its little covering. These are 
found in any quantity in nearly all our streams 
—strange to say not in Green River for miles— 
and picked up at almost any point in the stream. 
They say trout hold the hook better when stick 
bait is used. I reply that once the trout gets 
on, it is then the angler who must keep it on. 
Some years ago I was following this practice 
in brook trout fishing on a beautiful little stream 
in Haywood county. I used three flies, all of 
different patterns. I had a tin bait box strapped 
to my waist in which I carried my stick bait. 
It was very apparent that the trout preferred 
one of the three flies to the other two, though 
there was a stick bait on each of the three. So 
I put stick bait on the “other two’’ and none on 
the favorite fly. Results, exactly the same. I 
called a boy and handed him the box of stick 
bait and have never used one since. I took 
more trout on that trip than all the others did 
put together, and did away with the trouble of 
stick bait hunting, and opening each to get at 
the grub, which I often lost in the opening. 
What a queer idea this, that a trout will hold 
on better if a stick bait be used. Certain it is 
that he can be more securely hooked with the 
bare fly. 
I find, too, a difference of opinion as to flies. 
The royal coachman I have found my most kill¬ 
ing fly for both brook and rainbow trout, and 
that, too, in every month from March to Novem¬ 
ber ; yet I know a fly-fisherman, one who casts a 
fly with the greatest ease and as light as a 
thistle, who says the royal coachman does not 
kill trout for him. 
I have often tried to 
learn the art of cast¬ 
ing the fly with my 
left arm and can cast 
with it, but try as I 
may I cannot make it 
“do” as I wish it, 
and as my right arm 
does. There is much, 
I think, in the move¬ 
ment of the flies after 
they drop on the 
water. Trout do not 
always strike a fly 
just as soon as it 
touches the water, so 
I say the manipulat¬ 
ing of the flies after 
they drop on the 
water has much to do 
with results. 
This, the above, 
then is what I have 
experienced in my 
“trips for trout’’ in 
our mountain streams. 
There are quite a 
number of fine trout 
streams in the Sap¬ 
phire country, reach¬ 
ed by passing through 
this place. There is 
hardly a more beau¬ 
tiful mountain coun¬ 
try or more beautiful 
trout streams than 
can be reached from 
LakeToxaway. There 
are something like 
fifty waterfalls of 
great beauty within 
ten or fifteen miles of 
Lake Toxaway. The 
lake itself covers 
some sixteen or eigh¬ 
teen hundred acres 
of beautiful water 
which is completely 
surrounded by moun¬ 
tains, the highest of 
which, Mount Tox¬ 
away, is 5,000 feet. 
The Toxaway River 
is a dark mountain 
stream, rising up un¬ 
der the mountain. The 
lake and streams are full of rainbow and brook 
trout. 
To go in another direction, there is the L n- 
ville Falls country that Mr. Bicknell writes so 
interestingly about. No better rainbow trout 
fishing anywhere in the Eastern or Southern 
■ States than there. Then there is the famous 
Pigeon River country. The best of this is con¬ 
trolled by a club of Waynesville sportsmen of 
Con finned on page 24. 
LOOKING GLASS FALL, IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
