Sport on the Fishing Ground. 
J Away! away!- at break of day, 
Through the high grass steeped in dew, 
To the lake still kiss’d by the silver mist, 
That mirrors your birch canoe. 
A paddle’s sweep, and away you leap, 
With the speed of an eager hound, 
While the dawn breeze stirs in the towering firs, 
And you’re off for the fishing ground. 
And now at last you have made your cast, 
And await the longed-for “strike, 
When as quick as thought you have what you sought, 
A “rush” that is something like. 
The click reel hums as “he” goes and comes, 
And your lancewood tip proves sound, 
Oh, the best of days are the ones I praise, 
Those spent on the fishing ground. 
Wm. Tyler Olcott. 
Little Talks About Fly-Fishing. 
Sulivan County, New York, April i —Editor 
Sorest and Stream: The long winter is over 
imd spring is here. The “break up” began on 
March 15, and wild geese passed northward on 
the 16th. These were followed by great com- 
j panies of crows, and robins and bluebirds were 
loot far behind. The song sparrow was singing 
while all the land was still under a heavy mantle 
of snow. Anglers are happy, as the outlook is 
very encouraging. We should have good fly¬ 
fishing earlier than usual this year. The ice 
1 went out quietly from the large streams, no 
! jams formed and it does not seem possible that 
any damage was done to the trout. 1 he snow 
has disappeared in much, the same way. It 
melted quite rapidly, but there were no heavy 
rains and no floods or freshets of the. harmful 
kind. We may have too much water this month 
(April), but upon the whole developments have 
been in our favor, and we may look forward 
confidently to good sport during the first weeks 
of the open season. We know that the streams 
were fairly well stocked after the season ended 
1 in 1906, and many trout were seen on the spawn- 
' ing beds. In this part of the State November 
! seems to be the month when most of the ova is 
! deposited, but a few trout were seen on the 
| redds in December. In I 9 °S I saw at wor ^ 
I before the end of October. 
We sympathize with the anglers who burn to 
wet their lines on the very first day of the trout 
I season, although we know very well that the 
early fishing is often disappointing on these 
mountain streams. In mid April the weather is 
apt to be cold and windy, the water is high and 
often tinged with snow brew. But never mind, it is 
blessed to go, even if we do not kill a fish, l he 
air may be raw, but there is a breath of spring 
in it and many of the birds have arrived. 1 lie 
peeps and frogs have come up from their 
winter quarters down in the mud and are doing 
their best to assist the feathered singers in 
celebrating the advent of spring. 
If the big streams are absolutely unfishable, 
i something can usually be done in the small 
brooks, and bennie kills. There is much water 
everywhere, and trout may be found in places 
that would he hopeless, from our point of view, 
a few weeks later. It is surprising what good 
fish one may take in little pools near the main 
river. I remember wading up a shallow stream- 
1 let for some distance, looking for a likely place, 
j and presently coming to a little pool which 
washed the base of a flat rock. Upon that 
■ rock stood a little negro girl, who had been 
j trying to open the trout season with a stick 
and a string. I did not wish to poach upon her 
pool, but as a matter of form, dropped my fly 
at the edge of the stone and not three feet from 
the small maiden’s toes. It was seized at once 
by a half-pound native trout, which had been 
lurking under her pedestal, and I am not sure 
who was more surprised, the child or myself. 
Trout are not very shy in these first days of 
the season. If the water is discolored and some 
members of your party are trout hungry, the 
humble angleworm may be used to grub out a 
few for the table. This will not satisfy the 
sentiment very well, as most of us have been 
looking forward to fly-fishing, pure and simple, 
and frequently the patient and persevering 
disciple will accomplish something, even when 
the prevailing conditions are not favorable. 
An unusually large fly or a bright, fancy 
pattern may kill a few fish. If no rises are seen, 
the fly may be well sunk, allowed to drift a little 
and then brought up with slight twitches of the 
rod top. Silver and gold bodies are attractive, 
and that gay fellow, the royal-coachman, must 
not be forgotten. I am thinking now of moun- 
lain rivers which flow at high altitudes, and 
where, thus early in the spring, but few natural 
flies have appeared upon the surface. The tiout 
are hungry, but are not very active and are on 
the lookout for food in the middle depths of 
the stream. Often they may be found in water 
of no great depth, and if you strike one, it 
usually has company; in fact, large schools often 
gather in a favored spot, out of the current in 
a quiet eddy, particularly if a little snow water 
is still running. The trout have wintered in the 
deep pools and if the season is backward may 
not have fully distributed themselves throughout 
the stream. Snow water has a greenish cast if 
not otherwise discolored, and little can be done 
when it is present. . 
At lower levels than this and further south 
conditions are different. I haye seen large 
batches of duns and gnats during the latter 
part of March and early in April. Hereabouts 
the natural flies are not often numerous until 
May. I have been successful with a large gold- 
ribbed palmer-hackle with red tag when other 
flies failed. The red tag was added to attract 
attention and give it a warm look; otherwise it 
might pass for a larva of some sort. A large 
March-Brown may be tied, and some anglers 
favor the Seth-Green. The Wickham is always 
worthy of a trial, and in some waters I have 
found the silver-dun very killing. We have 
nothing to guide our selection, and one would 
imagine that one fly would answer as well as 
another, but this is not the fact, although the 
fish are not as discriminating as they become 
later in the season. 
The water is intensely cold and no one should 
be careless in regard to their wading gear. Old 
stockings or waist waders should be tested and 
repaired, or replaced by a new outfit It is 
not wise to neglect these things until just be¬ 
fore you leave home. . . 
I wish that it was possible to revisit all our 
old haunts during the best portion of the season. 
There are many fine streams in Pennsylvania 
which I have not fished for many years. Some 
of these are ideal from the dry fly-fisher’s point 
of view, particularly the limestone streams which 
are formed by great springs which gush from 
the rocks in large volume. These streams flow 
slowly, for the most part, the rifts are shoal and 
there are many dams upon them. There is a 
great deal of moss in these dams and this is 
good cover for the larva of insects—snails, 
shrimps, etc. Such waters carry a large stock 
of trout and afford very interesting sport. _ When 
I knew them, they were hard fished during the 
first days of the season and the trout soon 
acquired an education; but what numbers there 
were! In June I have seen the water covered 
with the dimples made by rising trout as far 
as my view extended. This was in the evening 
after the sun was off the water, in the Big 
Spring, a large stream which flows through 
Newville, Pa. The catch on the first day of 
the open season totaled from 3.000 to 4,000 trout, 
divided among perhaps 100 rods. Not so many 
years ago 3,800 was reported in a newspaper, as 
being taken on the opening day. In any stream 
that has been stocked with the brown or yellow 
trout for five or six years, it is always possible 
that we may strike a fish of extraordinary size, 
one that will give us a shaking up that we are 
slow to forget. From 1894 to about 1900 there 
were a good many pf these big trout, but they 
are now very scarce. During the long con- 
tinued drouths in summer they are located, and 
some men will do anything almost to gain pos¬ 
session of them. It may be that they grew 
more rapidly when there were not so many 
brown trout in the streams. It seems tO' me 
that there were more large minnows at that 
time, and I think the big caddis has decreased 
in number. Any decrease in the food supply 
would, of course, affect the growth of the fish, 
but we know that the average size of the trout 
taken is just about as good as it ever was. 
It was reported that a trout of eight pounds 
was killed in the Esopus near Phoenicia last 
summer, but I do not >,now whether this is 
correct or not. Formerly there was a grand 
stock of the rainbow trout in this stream, the 
Esopus, but since the advent of the brown trout 
they have decreased greatly in size, and in 
numbers also, I believe. This is unfortunate, as 
this is one of the very few streams in the east 
where this species really was established, and 
a pronounced success for years. 
Rainbows have often done well for two years 
and then disappeared. They try to go to sea, 
probably. In many of the rivers of the Cascade 
range of mountains the larger rainbow trout are 
said to visit the ocean regularly, running up 
again early in July or late in June. The ram- 
bow is certainly one of the most sporting fish 
of its inches that swims, and I wish that they 
were more abundant in the east. I have taken a 
few in Sullivan county waters, but only a few. 
The native trout are still to be found in large 
numbers in the headwaters of the streams, and 
fish of fair size are taken lower dowm But the 
brown trout is our main dependence in a day s 
fly-fishing. It is a grand game fish also. _ 
If we wish to have native trout ( fontmalis ), 
we must restock with yearlings. The fario is the 
hardier fish and it grows rapidly. It is natural, 
in restocking, to select the species which gives 
the largest increase and the quickest returns ni 
the way of sport. We wish to kill fish which 
are large enough to make their capture ex¬ 
citing. The first rush of a big trout is something 
worth living for, and we are never sure of him 
until he is in the basket. I have seen a two- 
pound fish landed and then lost down a musk¬ 
rat hole. If the trout leaps at end of his first 
run, how enormous he appears! I have been 
quite sure that a three-pounder weighed at least 
five pounds. This is the right kind of excite¬ 
ment. It rejuvenates an elderly man and takes 
him back to the days of his boyhood; in fact 
a good angler never feels old as long as he can 
cast his fly to a rising trout. 
The days are all too short when one goes 
a-fishing. This is true even when the fates are 
unkind and luck against us. With a few good 
trout in the creel our ardor is satisfied. We 
stroll along and take things easily. We enjoy 
our surroundings and are interested in the bird 
and insect life about us. But should it be an 
off day, when the fish are glued to the bottom of 
the stream, how hard we work to tempt them. 
We feel a certain animosity against the trout. 
“Confound them! they must rise at something 
Fortunately our mood is easily sweetened and 
a little success goes a long way. If it was al¬ 
ways easy to take trout, surely we would not be 
so fond of fly-fishing. Theodore Gordon. 
' 
