May n, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
593 
Tickling a 
Bass Water with a Dry 
By O. W. SMITH 
O NE maddening hot day last summer I said 
to my fishing companion, who, as every 
reader of Forest and Streaji knows, is 
my wife: “tThummie, I’ve got an idea!" 
Perhaps it was because of the excessive heat, 
I hope simply because of the heat, the reply was, 
“Well, hang on to it for it will be a long time 
before you will entertain another.’’ 
Ignoring the sarcasm after the manner of a 
well-trained benedict, I continued evenly; “I 
believe that with a large, gorgeous, flamboyant 
fly, treated with our paraffine solution, it would 
be possible to catch bass on the surface.’’ An¬ 
ticipating the objection, I hurried on. "Yes, I 
know that bass like 
to have flies sink now 
and then beneath the 
surface, and also are 
attracted by consider¬ 
able surface commo¬ 
tion, but just the 
same they do take 
flies on the surface; 
I believe that dry-fly 
fishing for Microp- 
terus will prove suc¬ 
cessful ; furthermore 
I am determined to 
try it out instanter.” 
Still the partner of 
my piscatorial joys 
hesitated, for the day 
was woefully hot, but 
I have not been a 
family man for fif¬ 
teen years without 
learning a thing or 
two, so I carelessly 
added: “And you 
can wear that new 
outing skirt, you 
know.” She shot a 
suspicious glance at me, but my face was as in¬ 
scrutable as the Mosaic law, so trotted off to 
pack the lunch. 
' For some time I have been tying bass flies on 
eyed hooks, twisting back the wings in spread 
eagle style, the reverse method, and let me add 
that I have found bass flies so tied more attrac¬ 
tive in the eyes of Mr. Bronzback, but I had 
never tried coating them with the waterproofing 
solution, which is to say, I had never actually 
“dry-fly” fished for bass, though I had often 
resorted to a modified form of the method. Of 
course in trout fishing I had early turned my 
attention to the English practice, following no 
guide, but blazing my own trail, gleaning h'nts 
wherever I could, and succeeding far beyond my 
wildest hopes. Not all waters are adapted to 
the dry-fly method, by the way, but where there 
are broad and deep “swims,” as our English 
cousins would say, the dry fly will coax the 
wary large fish from the depths; indeed, I have 
come to the conclusion that as a rule the dry 
fly is peculiarly attractive in the eyes of large 
trout. And if trout, then why not black bass? 
I looked over my selection of flies, a collec¬ 
tion rather than a selection, for I possess not 
only types of the standard flies, but objects which 
resemble nothing in the "heavens above, or in the 
earth beneath.” That is the great advantage of 
tying your own flies; you can have not only the 
regular patterns, but special creations at will. 
Of course I selected the silver doctor, for that 
is always an attractive bass fly; the next was a 
creation of my own and may be described as 
a cross between a “jungle cock” and a cracker, 
a gorgeous thing, but uniformly attractive; for 
a third I selected a Cleveland, ending the list 
with my style of matador, differing but little 
from the regular type, save that instead of the 
barred woodduck feathers I use the ocellated 
feathers of the common barnyard peacock in 
conjunction with a single white feather which 
rises between and above the purple. Having 
made my selection of four feathers, I proceeded 
to treat them with homemade “dri-fly,” simply 
sprayed them with paraffine oil and a few drops 
of benzine, a mi.xture which I keep in an atomi¬ 
zer, a very convenient instrument for spraying, 
by the way, if one is careful not to use too 
much of the oil. (My formula is ten drops of 
benzine to one-half an ounce of paraffine oil.) 
If one does not apply too much of the oil, the 
flies will dry in a short time, and will stand cast¬ 
ing for several hours without becoming water- 
soaked. For the atomizer idea I am indebted 
to a Wisconsin angler. 
It was about 3 o’clock when I pushed our boat 
out into the river and started to float down with 
the current, planning to reach the reedy lake, 
our chosen fishing ground, at sunset, for it is 
not until the evening shadows begin to gather 
that bass will rise in hot weather. Our river is 
superbly beautiful, and more than once my wife 
insisted that I stop while she landed and took 
a picture, which I was not sorry to do, as photo¬ 
graphs help one to live the day over in memory. 
Even a herd of cattle, standing knee-deep in the 
cool water, were made, all unwittingly, to pose 
for a very pleasing picture. So interested did 
we become in our picture taking that the sun 
had well declined before we noticed, then we 
were compelled to rush for the lake, the river 
being so deep that ordinarily fly-fishing was out 
of the question. No fish will take flies unless 
feeding upon or near the surface, and where 
bass have not formed that habit it is well n'gh 
useless to tickle the surface of the water with 
any combination of feathers, so the would-be 
dry-fly fisher must seek the shallows close in 
shore, or along the edges of weed beds, to which 
the bass resort at 
even-tide in search 
of food. 
The enervating heat 
of the day had been 
too much for my 
companion and she 
elected to remain on 
shore and watch the 
gathering of the 
night from beneath 
the trees, leaving me 
to attempt the dry-fly 
method alone, an ar¬ 
rangement which I 
did not altogether 
like, but when a 
woman wills, she 
wills, you know, so 
what could I do? 
Now, it is woefully 
hard to handle a boat 
and a fly-rod at the 
same time, almost an 
impossibility, and I 
set out with misgiv¬ 
ings. Fortunately the 
evening was calm, 
hardly a ripple disturbed the surface of the lake, 
rendering the management of the boat compara¬ 
tively easy, though under such conditions one 
must “fish fine and far off.” 
I circled the lake from inlet around to outlet 
and back again, but without result, probably 
because I disturbed the water too much with my 
boat, then I rowed up into the inlet, threw out 
the anchor to which was attached a clothes line, 
and let the boat drift down until I could just 
reach the edge of the bar which had formed at 
the mouth of the stream. I was in a position 
to command a wide stretch of water, and, by 
simply lengthening or shortening the rope, I 
could change my location at will, and with little 
trouble or commotion. There is nothing more 
convenient than a long anchor rope when fish¬ 
ing where there is sufficient current to move the 
boat. Sometimes when fishing 'a lake alone I 
have used two anchors, one from the bow and 
the other the stern, each with long lines at¬ 
tached. First I drop one anchor, then row the 
length of the line and drop the other, or bend 
on the second anchor rope, and drop the anchor 
when the line is all out. I can move my boat 
by simply drawing in upon one line or the other. 
