March 2, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
273 
seems a great pity that they have received such 
a set back. 
How the quail and partridge have fared I am 
unable to say, but fear the quail have had a hard 
time. In a two hour tramp about three weeks 
ago I put up one small covey and found the 
tracks of another bunch, but could not flush them. 
We also raised four good strong partridges. 
Last fall we had a good flight of woodcock 
and it is a shame the way they were slaughtered. 
I know of a number of cases where twenty were 
killed by one gun in the day and heard of one 
case of fifty. This is all wrong, and means the 
end of the woodcock if continued. There is no 
doubt we need a bag limit on woodcock as much 
as on quail or partridge. 
The Hungarian partridge does not seem to me 
to have been a success. There has been a large 
number liberated in this neighborhood in the past 
three years and we have nothing to show for it. 
They have bred, as I have heard of a number 
of nests and also broods of young, but when fall 
comes they have disappeared, and what be¬ 
comes of them is a mystery. Either they 
are an easy prey for vermin or they migrate. 
I heard of a case where a small flock were 
liberated in a large meadow and were seen there 
for several days. One morning a friend of mine 
noticed a large hawk hunting the meadow very 
carefully just above the tops of the grass, and 
the little flock was never seen again. The hawk 
may not have got them, but it looked very much 
that way. 
It seems to me that the same amount of money 
spent on our native birds would have brought 
greater results. Woodcock. 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., Feb. 26. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Senator Murtaugh, of Elmira, has in¬ 
troduced a bill relating to coarse fish in the Sus¬ 
quehanna River in Tioga county. 
Assemblyman Wheeler, of Delaware, has in¬ 
troduced a bill relating to coarse fish in Dela¬ 
ware county. 
Assemblyman Pembleton, of Tioga, has intro¬ 
duced a bill relating to certain fish in Tioga 
county. 
Assemblyman Myron Smith, of Dutchess, has 
introduced a bill striking out the provision that 
there shall be no open season for grouse and 
quail in Dutchess county prior to Oct. i, 1913, 
but woodcock may be taken and possessed dur¬ 
ing the open season provided in Section 39. 
Assemblyman Richardson, of Allegany, has in¬ 
troduced a bill providing that in Allegany county 
the open season for hares and rabbits shall ex¬ 
tend throughout the year for the first five years 
after the amendment takes effect. 
Senator Roosevelt, of Dutchess, has introduced 
a bill providing that any dealer in game marked 
and tagged (as provided in Sections 96a and 96b) 
may hold during the close season in public store¬ 
house, designated by the Conservation Commis¬ 
sion, such part of his stock of game as he has 
on hand undisposed of at the beginning of the 
close season. He must give a bond not to sell, 
use or give away the game during the close 
season. 
The Assembly has passed the bill of Assem¬ 
blyman Wilson, of Ontario, amending the gen¬ 
eral municipal law in relation to the acquisition 
and development of forest lands by counties, 
towns and villages. E. C. C. 
Little Talks About Fly-Fishing. 
Sullivan County, N. Y., Feb. 24.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: The woodchuck did not 
see his shadow this year, so we may look for¬ 
ward to an early spring; that is, if we have 
faith in old saws and ancient superstitions. I 
never saw a woodchuck before April in this part 
of the country, but settling the weather is an 
important business engagement which an honest 
animal would hesitate to neglect. 
It is often bitterly cold in February, but the 
days are perceptibly longer, and sunshiny ones 
are bright with the promise of spring and fish¬ 
ing. 
The pleasures of anticipation, the making, 
mending or buying of rods and tackle during the 
long cozy evenings by the fireside; all these 
tend toward contentment and make this a cheer¬ 
ful season for which we should be grateful. 
During the past year there has been much 
talk of dry-fly fishing and more anglers will try 
this method this season than ever before. 
Francis Francis, at one time editor of the Eng¬ 
lish Field, was probably one of the best all¬ 
round anglers who ever lived, and in his very 
comprehensive work, “A Book on Angling,” has 
much to say of the dry-fly, but he loved all 
kinds of fishing. 
It was not until after the publication of F. M. 
Halford’s first book in 1886 that Americans paid 
much attention to the dry fly as a special art 
to be studied and practiced on our own waters. 
To those whose early education had been mostly 
on slow-flowing streams which were rich in in¬ 
sect life, the change from a wet to a dry fly 
was not difficult, as they had often used a single 
small fly fished up stream, and casting to rising 
trout was a common experience. It must be 
confessed, however, that we were completely 
fascinated by the art of the dry fly as practiced 
by the most scientific anglers on the chalk 
streams of the South of England. Mr. Hal¬ 
ford’s magnum opus on “The Theory, and Prac¬ 
tice of Dry-Fly Fishing” charmed many Ameri¬ 
cans, and for a time we tried to follow the les¬ 
sons of this book too closely without making 
allowance for differences in conditions, particu¬ 
larly in mountain streams where there is much 
fast water. 
Wherever trout feed upon surface food, sport 
may be had with a dry-fly as is proved by the 
spread of the method, not only in Scotland and 
Ireland, but in this country. It is not the best 
way .everywhere and all the time by any means, 
and if a man uses the artificial fly only in his 
trout fishing, he should (as Francis said) be a 
master of, or thoroughly understand, dry, wet 
and mid water fly-fishing. No one man, no mat¬ 
ter how skillful he may be, will ever know all 
that there is in fly-fishing, although there are 
some who are wonderfully expert, but wherever 
they go they find new and interesting problems 
to tackle. 
If you find a big trout feeding upon minnows, 
it will usually disregard the most artfully pre¬ 
sented dry-fly, but with patience may be in¬ 
duced to take a wet one. Some waters are much 
richer in insect life than others, and whenever 
there are a lot of flies about the larger or better 
class of fish take more interest in surface food. 
A really good rise of the insects born of the 
water will often put all the fish in the stream 
on the feed. You have thought perhaps that 
trout are rather scarce, when suddenly they are 
everywhere, big and little, in the pools and swift 
water, on the shallows and in places where you 
were sure there were no trout. 
After heavy rains have washed much c’ay and 
dust from the roads into a clear stream, and 
fouled it, a remarkable show of trout may 
often be seen just after the water has become 
pure and clear again. It is probable that the 
discoloration and filth depressed the fish, and 
they show their pleasure in the return of nor¬ 
mal conditions by rising and playing upon the 
surface. At such times they may neglect the 
artificial fly and there may be few natural ones 
on the water. The trout are sporting, not feed¬ 
ing in earnest. 
The great floods of recent years have affected 
the supply of natural flies by carrying away or 
covering up the larvae. The enormous quantities 
of stone, gravel and sand moved by these fresh¬ 
ets is astonishing, and this seems the most rea¬ 
sonable explanation of the decrease in the num¬ 
bers of the ephemera, caddis, stone flies, etc. 
May and June are the best months. We used 
to have good hatches of insects all summer, but 
now the water becomes too warm, most of our 
summers are very dry and the streams become 
low and stale. However, there are waters that 
are abundantly supplied with insects and their 
larvae, and where good rises of flies and trout 
may be seen. There is nothing more fascinating 
than fishing for rising trout or fish that you 
can see. It must be the hatching of the stone 
flies that brings good trout into water only a 
few inches deep. They know where the 
food is. 
In May it is often cold and there may be no 
rise of flies until after noon. The trout may 
feed more or less all day, but the most profit¬ 
able time will probably come between 12 and 3 
p. M. As the weather becomes warmer, the rise 
comes in earlier and there may be several dis¬ 
tinct rises during the day. In June there is al¬ 
ways some show of insects after 5 o’clock p. m. 
I can remember times when the trout rose al¬ 
most continually from 10 o’clock until 2 p. m. 
Those were great days, and one was sure to 
have all the trout he was entitled to between 
those hours, but it is years since I had any¬ 
thing so good. If you strike a good rise for 
an hour or two, you are lucky and will enjoy 
yourself. Of course a man will be happy on 
the stream, but I think he should have two or 
three good fish in his creel to feel contented and 
at his ease. It is depressing to carry an empty 
basket too long and a man in bad luck is apt 
to work too hard and become horribly fatigued. 
One big trout or a little good fortune sweetens 
a man’s temper and enables him to appreciate 
the beauties of nature. The peaceful spirit and 
contented mind are what we wish fly-fishing to 
bring us. Theodore Gordon. 
