102 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 19, 1907. 
are found, a very light, short rod will give 
more pleasure than a more powerful weapon, 
and is more convenient to use among trees and 
bushes. I have seen some pretty work done 
with an eight-foot rod, but personally I would 
never choose anything under nine feet and five 
ounces in weight. A well shaped handle of 
cork is a great comfort. Those tiny little hand- 
grasps are, to my notion, much more tiring to 
the hand. 
If we can afford a battery of rods, the first 
selection is not of so much importance, but if 
we can have but one it should be, in our eyes, as 
near perfection as possible. Even the man of 
many weapons will be apt to bave one prime 
favorite which he uses at all times and in all 
places. After fishing with a light rod for 
several days, one that has more weight and 
power will feel very heavy and unwieldly. 
It usually pays to fish up stream in small 
brooks and in the large streams when they are 
low and clear. Early in the season when the 
water is high the best results will often be ob¬ 
tained by fishing across and down. One may 
cast his flies over the same place many times 
and then get a rise. In a fair current it may be 
best to almost hang the flies over the trout, at 
this season they are often slow to rise. I cast 
over a fish that was catching minnows for half 
an hour or more from a point about opposite 
and it paid no attention to the fly. I then went 
above, and getting out a long line, fairly hung 
the fly over the fish. This was a large trout 
(three pounds), as I had supposed, literally 
crammed with fresh silvery minnows. 
When writing of sport one could fill a book 
with stories of personal experiences. All the 
big fish one has taken rise and plead for recog¬ 
nition. The small chaps are forgotten, al¬ 
though they have contributed largely to our 
pleasure in days past. Fly-fishing is more in¬ 
teresting where we know a few really big fish 
exist. They may be slow to rise, but give them 
a fair chance; they will take a fly occasionally. 
Too many of them are shot, speared, snared or 
taken with baits of one sort or another. A 
large fly will sometimes tempt them when they 
would disdain a good imitation of the natural 
fly in the water. 
If you know where a real Jumbo lives, be 
sure that your tackle is of the kind to give you 
a chance of killing him. There is no knowing 
what he may rise at, but see that your casting 
line and fly are in good condition. Don’t use 
gossamer gut even with a very small fly. I did 
that myself and had good reason to regret it. 
(Great Scott! you should have seen that trout.) 
These trout are occasionally in shallow water 
early in the morning. The evening is a good 
time to try for them in warm weather. A good 
many anglers have regretted not having fish of 
unusual size mounted. It is certainly a great 
pleasure to have a trophy or trophies of that 
description to hang on one’s wall. 
In the streams of the Middle States flies of 
sombre colors are usually successful. Duns of 
sorts are favorites with me. All the ephemera 
pass through the dun stage before reaching 
maturity. The natural flies and larva that form 
a considerable portion of the trout’s food belong 
mostly to the ephemeridae, trichoptera (caddis), 
perlidae (stone flies), and diptera (gnats). All, 
or nearly all, of these flies are born of the water 
and pass the greater portion of their lives in it 
as immature and undeveloped insects. While 
not absolutely essential to success, some little 
time spent in the study of these insects, their 
habits and metamorphosis, will be found very 
interesting to any one who wanders, rod in 
hand, by the sides of our beautiful trout streams. 
No one seems to know a great deal about them, 
yet the larva fairly swarm in some waters, and 
during May and June they often hatch out in 
great numbers upon the surface. Some of them 
have a bad habit of coming out at night, but a 
great many are day fli^s. The species seem to 
vary a good deal even on streams that are not 
many miles asunder. A fly may be very abund¬ 
ant on one river and be practically unknown on 
another. I fancy that they are not as abundant 
on the waters with which I am familiar as 
they were years ago. The water gets much too 
warm for them in summer, in streams that 
formerly remained quite cool throughout the 
year. Some day they will, probably, be closely 
observed, but it is very difficult to preserve 
specimens in any similitude of life. 1 he 
ephemera are particularly fragile. 
Doubtless the reason why artificial flies were 
originally invented was because it was impos¬ 
sible to use the smaller and more delicate 
natural flies as baits on the hook. The first 
fly-fisher cast his eyes about him in search of 
something that would answer in imitating the 
flies upon which the trout were feeding. 
Feathers were naturally the first materials 
thought of and the old red cock’s hackle was 
the first of all the artificial insects. The old, 
old, Adam of them all. The breed has been in¬ 
creasing for several hundred years and numbers 
2,000 or more at the present day. Of salmon 
flies alone there are several hundred patterns. 
These belong to the lure order mostly, as do 
many of the large flies used for bass and trout. 
The little old red-hackle remains a good fly to 
this day and is put upon bodies of many colors, 
peacock herl being perhaps as well liked as any¬ 
thing; red wool is favored by many. 
The artificial insect has been the subject of 
many arguments, much discussion, and a great 
deal of thought and patient labor have been 
devoted to its construction. From time to time 
new materials have been suggested or patented, 
particularly for making the wings, but we are 
always compelled to return to ffeathers. One 
firm of tackle makers went so far as to have 
the wings of real insects collected and prepared 
by some secret process to make them tough and 
durable. Gauzy silk was also tried and there 
was one fly with patent wings that made a noise 
in the air like a quail rising from a briar patch. 
Men who are fond of fly-fishing are pretty sure 
to accumulate a large stock of flies, they are 
easily stowed away and sometimes the most 
unlikely looking patterns may prove to be of 
value. The bulk of our captures will be made 
with a few favorite flies in which we have con¬ 
fidence, but do not despise a large assortment. 
One advantage of the eyed hook is that the 
flies may be kept for years without deteriorating 
to any extent. There is no gut snell to rot or 
weaken. I use these hooks a great deal for tail flies 
and in dry fly-fishing, but have a sneaking fond¬ 
ness for the old snelled hooks, nothing can be 
neater and they are convenient for droppers. 
The great desideratum in fly-fishing is to keep 
out of sight of the keen eyes of the trout. Be¬ 
ware also of casting the shadow of your person 
or of your moving rod over the water you are 
about to fish. Fish into the sun or even into 
the moon if you should chance to essay fly¬ 
fishing by moonlight. Early in the season a 
bright sunshiny day is favorable. Eater, an 
overcast sky is an advantage and after a hot day 
the evening fishing is often good. Something 
can usually be done between 10 o’clock and 2:00 
P. M.. Very many baskets have been made be¬ 
tween those hours. On the streams 1 have 
fished most frequently of recent years an up¬ 
stream wind appears to be in one’s favor, proba¬ 
bly because it usually comes from the south, yet 
I have had great sport in a gusty northwest 
wind with cold showers of rain at intervals. A 
short light rain certainly helps one, but I never 
did anything in a regular downpour, except on 
one occasion. I never paid a great deal of at¬ 
tention to the weather in advance, being only 
too glad to go fishing when I had the oppor¬ 
tunity. I remember starting by train one after¬ 
noon when the weather was doubtful and I had 
only the next day at my disposal. Before we 
had traveled fifty miles the rain descended in 
torrents and when I reached the stream it was 
almost in flood and very dirty. I went to bed 
in a perfectly hopeless mood, intending to take 
the first train home in the morning. However, at 
breakfast I was informed that the water was 
clearing. Conditions improved as the day ad¬ 
vanced, and I enjoyed splendid sport, killing 
many fine trout. The very uncertainty of the 
business makes it more interesting, and a few 
fish taken under adverse conditions are highly 
valued. The most sporting water is well stocked 
with shy fish of large size, which can only be 
deluded by our very best efforts. Killing such 
trout enlarges our bump of self esteem. Nothing 
is more discouraging than a bad light, I mean 
those atmospheric conditions that make the 
finest leader show up like a cable and the best 
artificial fly appear as just what it is, the veriest 
humbug. If the fly, when it is in the water, 
looks natural to you, it usually kills fish, so it; 
must appear all right to them. 
Sullivan County, N. Y. THEODORE GORDON. 
Fishing Rod Materials. 
Has any reader of Forest and Stream any 
knowledge concerning all wood fishing rod- 
consisting of a core of one variety of wood ant 
a covering of another? It may be there wouh 
be no merit in a combination of this sort, but i 1 
seems reasonable to believe that a wood cortj 
might give better service than one of steel if 
a split bamboo rod. 
Aside from the objections that steel wire 
inserted in split bamboo rods and cementet 
(so-called) to the bamboo sleeve work loose 
the metal renders the rod too heavy and loggy 
It would seem, therefore, that a wood con 
could not be condemned on similar grounds 
It would be a very simple matter to insert 
round strip of greenheart, lancewood or eve; 
bamboo in the center of split bamboo butt 
and joints, and in tips of the larger sizes. No 
that we believe a good hand-split bamboo ro 
might be stiffened in this fashion, but it is pos 
sible it might be made stronger. 
Small yacht and canoe spars are hollowed t 
lighten them, and they are wonderfully stiff, al 
though they are not always bound as a glued-u 
rod is bound, and they are frequently expose 
to the weather for long periods of time. But th 
hollow spar is made larger in diameter than tb 
solid one on the theory that a thin-walled tub; 
of large diameter will be stronger and lighte 
than a solid rod of small diameter, other thing; 
being equal. This reasoning cannot be followe 
out in making the fishing rod, as, no mattt 
how light, its diameter must be kept within 
working maximum limit, and therefore hollo 
tips, to be sufficiently strong, would probabi 
have to be too large to please the angler’s ide 
of the fitness of rods in general. If, howeve 
the wood be made hollow and a solid core 0 
another variety of wood inserted in the sarr 
manner as the graphite in a pencil, it is po 
sible there might be some merit in it, for 
would not contain defects, like cross grain, i 
maker being free to so assemble the three par 
of a joint that perfect and imperfect section 
would be combined in the same manner as 
gluing up split bamboo. If, as seems to ha v 
been shown in experiments, a solid round greei 
heart tip is stronger than a hexagonal one bu 
up from strips of the same material, it won 
be interesting to know the relative stiffness 
a greenheart tip made from two hollowed piec 
fitted with a core of either greenheart or son 1 
other wood. 
It should be pointed out, in this connectioi 
that whereas most anglers believe their favori 
split bamboo rods to be made from six stri 
glued solidly on all bearing surfaces, as a matt 
of fact a great many butts and joints are actj 
ally hollow. In the medium and lower gra 
rods thin-walled “female” bamboo is used, a 
when the strips are glued together a hollow 
left in the center throughout the length of t 
joint or butt. 
It has been suggested that whole cane bit! 
and joints might be strengthened by insertir 
into them other whole cane pieces of the propj 
diameter. _ I 
In Germany cleaning rods for .22 caliber rin| 
are made by inserting a thin steel rod in 
hickory stick. If this wood can be bored si 
cessfully when less than 7-32 inch in diamek 
it should be possible to bore butts and joirj 
for rods, and possibly tips as well, although 
would seem that two hollow pieces with a wo 
core, all cemented and whipped, should possf; 
more good qualities. The cleaning rods referr| 
to are 32 to 36 inches in length, or about t 
same as rod joints. They have'been used in t 
United States for several years, and are w 
liked, as they do not injure the rifling of t 
barrel as much as if made of metal alone. 
