396 
FOREST AND 
STREAM 
New Lures 'hat Are True to Life 
The Author Describes Several Designs of Natural Baits for Trout and Bass That Can Be Cast on the 
Fly-Rod and Which Will Work a Revolution in Bait Fishing 
By Louis Rhead. 
Editorial Note:—For several years Mr. Rhead has devoted painstaking and diligent study 
of “Insects That Trout Feed Upon,” of which many articles huve been issued in a contemporary 
sporting magazine, and shortly to be published in book form. Last season and this coming one 
Mr. Rhead will carry on and take up the subject of the various creatures that game fishes con¬ 
sume as food, including different species of minnows, frogs, grasshoppers, caterpillars, dragon 
flies, helgramites, crawfish and the tamper eel. From his drawings Mr. Rhead will create exact 
copies and make artificial lures true to life and make them act in the water so that game 
fishes take them as they would their natural food. Mr. Rhead s next article will be : Some Na¬ 
ture Lures for summer and fall fishing—Floating Grasshoppers, Dragonflies and Caterpillars. 
OR years I have vainly tried to 
get a fish strike on the various 
imitation lures, most of them 
made of rubber. They are 
all not only miserably poor 
copies on nature, but from 
their weight and clumsiness, 
they act in the water as dead, 
inanimate things. No matter how skilfully they 
are played, trout and bass take not the slight¬ 
est notice of them. I would just as soon fish 
with a “shoe-string” at the end of my leader. 
Most expert anglers will surely agree with me 
in this after cne trial of them. Particularly so, 
of the painted rubber frogs, grasshoppers, worms 
and other imitations intended to replace live 
bait. 
This reference is aside from the “plug lures” 
which are not, I believe, intended to imitate any 
living thing. To the end that something may 
be available to anglers without using live bait 
(so hard to get, so hard to keep fit to use) 1 
have spent most of my time this past winter in 
study and experiments to get at just the perfect 
nature lure that will act and appear as enticing 
as the natural food does to bass, trout and other 
game fishes. 
A perfectly good and useful article is not 
dreamed of over-night, and completed the fol¬ 
lowing day. I made twenty-three models of this 
jumping, floating frog, before I reached the de¬ 
sired result. Many hoped-for improvements 
were discarded because of some undesirable fea¬ 
ture. These frogs (and those to follow) are 
the result of continuous effort in practical trials 
and experiments to demonstrate their superior 
value as lures in order to gain three important 
points heretofore not accomplished. 
First: They must be light enough in weighi 
to cast with a fly rod, to float upright and nat¬ 
ural in turbulent water, yet strong enough to be 
chewed and not destroyed. 
Second: Soft to the touch, without scaring 
the fish. 
Third: Perfection in form and color when 
floating in the water. 
For these and other reasons, I am determined 
to give the true angling sportsman a lure to lure 
and not to scare. Of this I am convinced: if 
the present style of bass lures continue to en¬ 
velop, that in a few years’ time, Mr. Bass, like¬ 
wise Miss Trout (both wise, alert and discerning 
fish) will absolutely refuse chunks of wood, rub¬ 
ber or metal. They know as well as I know, 
such lures, tearing through the water by them, 
The Author Shows What His New Lures 
Will Do. 
are not food. Their action in taking them is 
merely antagonistic caprice, which in time will 
utterly fail. This reasoning is sound, because 
when we miss a strike, we never get the same 
bass to go a second time. When we cast again, 
if taken, it is sure to be another bass. 
The case : s altogether different with live bait. 
When a real minnow, crab or frog is gorged, the 
fish is ready and willing for more, the effect in 
its stomach is obvious. It is most natural to 
suppose Mr. Bass is quite satisfied with one trial 
at a piece of wood. Bass are neither dull nor 
stupid but, as Dr. Henshall rightly says, “the 
gamest fish that swims.” 
The majority of black bass invariably prefer 
to abide near the bottom, in water from four to 
twenty feet deep. It is round the shallow edges 
of rocks, sandbars, and edges of lakes where they 
congregate. They lie still most of the time like 
other game fishes to pounce periodically upon 
passing prey during the daytime; (hen at night, 
swim about the shallows foraging for food. They 
will follow a lure some distance before they grao 
it—in fact they often follow a lure within two 
feet of the boat and make a grab after much 
wary consideration. Not so with big trout, 
which dash for a lure like lightning, without 
careful observation, or wondering what it is. 
It is j ust these two opposite though charactei * 
istic habits, my floating nature-lures will fu> • 
nish anglers with new thrills, a treble sensation 
heretofore not enjoyed. 
With a fly-rod you may cast out these light 
nature fish food imitations. You play it at the 
surface; then in full view you watch the gamy 
fish go for it and grab it. The lure cannot drop 
like a plummet to get snagged on the bottom, 
and even a tyro caster may place it among the 
weeds to play it there without trouble till it is 
seen by the fish. There is no need of a rapid- 
reel-in, or any bother of a line tangle—whic« 
so often happens when a heavy plug sinks to 
fasten its numerous double and treble hooks oa 
a sunken tree trunk. No weedless hook is 
needed for these lures. 
It will be noticed these floaters have but one 
single hook, of good size, it is true. But aside 
from extra weight they give the lure, I think 
the treble hook a bad feature. Only one part of 
a treble hook takes hold on the fish. As to 
three or four treble hooks—with such a lure I 
should blush to meet my bass face to face. 
With this preliminary to Forest and Stream 
anglers as a reason for offering these frog lures, 
I will now proceed to describe them and the 
simple method required to use them. 
I describe the frogs first, for the reason I con¬ 
sider them my greatest achievement (so far) 
because of the difficulties to overcome in making 
movable legs and floating body. In making the 
frogs I copied the green leopard frog for use 
in Eastern waters, the spotted pickerel frog for 
the Middle West, the little red-bellied frog for 
Pacific Coastal States. The belly of the green 
frog is pure white, running to a bright yellow at 
the base. The pickerel frog has white belly 
spotted at the base with brown. The Pacific 
frog is white at the front with bright red at the 
sides, running at scarlet spots at the base of the 
