FOREST AND STREAM 
459 
Some Nature Lures for Summer and Fall Fishing 
Remarkable Imitations of Well Known Insects, Grasshoppers, Dragon-Flies and Caterpillars That add a 
New Chapter to Modern Angling 
would be madness for even 
the very foolish to deny that 
game fish seek localities where 
food is most abundant; also to 
deny that fish will and do pre¬ 
fer lures and baits different 
from the regular food they 
are wont to eat. My conten¬ 
tion is, give a fish the food he likes, or if that 
be not possible, offer an imitation of that food, 
as near as can be made with the materials at 
command. This I am endeavoring to do at the 
best of my ability. An artist is particularly fa¬ 
vored in that, he can (with more or less suc¬ 
cess) copy nature and after patient effort pro¬ 
duce what less favored persons would scarce 
attempt. 
All rivers or bodies of water contain certain 
kinds of fish food that preponderate over others. 
Thus it is some lakes of deep water and few 
weeds have abundance of minnows and few 
frogs. Shallow lakes with plenty of weeds, 
grass, lilies and scum, breed frogs, dragon¬ 
flies, grasshoppers and much other surface food. 
Rivers that have muddy and sandy bottoms 
breed entirely different insects to those rivers 
with rocky or pebbly bottoms, and whatever the 
water conditions are, the food varies consider¬ 
ably according to season. 
Just as the summer’s heat gets powerful 
aquatic insects become smaller and scarcer. Then 
nature supplies certain fish food of a larger 
kind. After June the water is thick with the 
larvae of various big stone-flies and dragon-flies; 
the land in close proximity to the water is fairly 
alive with grasshoppers (winged and wingless) 
and the river and lake-side trees are loaded with 
different species of caterpillars. It is quite true 
that from early spring to late fall, minnows cer¬ 
tainly do form the major part of fish diet. But 
minnows are sharp enough to haunt the shallows 
where big fish fear to go. It is only during the 
night time in summer that large fish prowl 
around the sides to get them. 
Ihe minnows here shown are in many respects 
an advance on the “feather minnows” described 
By Louis Rhead. 
back from side of the river, covering as much 
water as possible. I am confident no minnow 
heretofore invented is so deadly as anglers will 
find this lure to be. 
is seized by the first large fish in sight. If you 
hook one, float it alive, nay, if you do so half 
a dozen times you will see how cleverly the fish 
nip them off without touching the hook. This 
T1 '" A n 7. rr’T "T B '" R '‘' U " <l Ab °"‘ “ P ~«“ Illustration- 
Ro ’ e h * Marve 'l°us Accuracy With Which Their Ori s i„,tor and Designer 
Has Followed Natural Life. 
last March in another magazine. They are 
long shots ’ harder to make, because the two 
parts are separately constructed, the back of 
cork and the belly of wood, so made that 
floats upright and requires less movement 
by 
it 
in 
playing—in fact, fish have taken them while per¬ 
fectly still in repose. In this minnow I discarded 
the plume (which forms a prominent feature of 
the feather minnow) and used a pair of quiver¬ 
ing feathers placed at the forward side of the 
bony as pectoral fins. It is most effective when 
cast down stream, then to be gradually reeled 
I do not propose in these papers to describe 
the (more or less) remarkable success of these 
lures, though I could do so, but I cheerfully 
leave such tales to those amateur or veteran an¬ 
glers who delight in reciting wonderful exploits 
to their angling brethren. My sole object is to 
study and investigate how to get the best sport 
in the highest and most skillful manner, and 
supply the means. In order to do this I have 
during the last three years made careful color 
pictures of every kind of food that game fish 
eat and by the end of this year I hope to have 
a complete line of nature lures, as perfect in 
every detail as it is possible to make them by 
hand, all ready in good time for next season’s 
fishing. 
A live grasshopper that floats down stream in 
the daytime has little chance to go far before it 
smart trick is not so easy with my nature lure 
grasshopper, which is made to float and stand 
upright on the surface. If you cast it out where 
trout lie, either on a clear glassy surface, or 
down a rippling runway, you should use a long, 
fine six-foot leader though strong enough to 
hold a big bass or trout. 
Attach the leader neatly to the bait without 
any additional feature, spoons, sinkers or other 
attractions whatever, playing the rod tip so that 
the bait skips in short jumps, like the natural in¬ 
sect does, when by accident it falls on the water 
Strike instantly the bait is taken, for the fish 
can immediately tell the difference between arti¬ 
ficial and live bait. The advantage of grass¬ 
hopper fishing is that none but large fish will go 
for it, and also that you may fish with fairly 
4 
/ 
