938 
brush to an old wood road, where we hitched 
the horse, continuing our journeying afoot, 
trampling a carpet of moss, grass, lady slippers 
and bird-foot violets, until the steady roar of 
the falls warned us to assemble our rods. I 
delayed to give Uncle Jim a chance at the big 
fellow which he offered to me, but which was 
declined, on the ground that I was not ready. 
The big fellow was probably initiated by his 
former experience with the tiny sproat hook 
which Uncle Jim affects, and remained hidden 
and unresponsive in the boiling pool beneath 
the dam. . 
“Too clear and cold!” commented Jim. too 
old and wise!” I retorted. From there we 
waded downstream abreast. Old Nancy Brook 
being wide and clear of brush, with a bottom 
which is all rocks and white gravel and nowhere 
muddy. A mad jerk on Jim’s line, and presently 
an infant speckled trout was returned to the 
riffle Another, and still another! “Small!” I 
remarked.” “Yes, they be!” grunted Uncle 
Jim. “Get ready,” he added, and in a few 
seconds I dipped up a baby trout that slipped 
through the meshes of ray landing net. Some- 
thing tipped my rod with ci vicious tug,^ and 
slowly I dipped up the only “basket trout” we 
hooked that morning—about 7V2 inches. 
Nowise discouraged, I unhitched old John 
and was home in time for dinner. Bill awaited 
us, and when all had filed in, he and I started 
to fish from the schoolhouse to the lower end, 
which flows into the Willimantic River. Again 
I was slow in bringing any fish to net. Billy 
creeling five before I showed signs of life. 
However, I struck a pool which furnished two, 
then three in different riffles, and we were even. 
Up to that time the fish had been of fair size, 
seven to eight inches. Now, having allowed my 
fly to. negligently float over a pool and into a 
riffle, I was recovering line when . something 
disputed possession with me. On giving a sharp 
tug to set the hook firmly, he rushed down¬ 
stream, but changed his mind on feeling the 
drag and rushed straight for me, passed by and, 
on my giving him a taste of the butt, we both 
saw the gleaming sides of a good one, fighting 
for his head. I humored him just enough for 
safety’s sake. The rod acted nobly, line also, 
leader held, but he shook the hook loose with 
a final terrier wiggle from nose to tail and 
is still an inhabitant of the brook. 
Dace proved plentiful, fooling us time and 
again in the rapids. 
Now, a word from Bill, and I saw him dis¬ 
puting with an unseen bulldog for possession of 
the silk line. Bill is one of those fishermen who, 
if he were fishing one hundred yards behind 
you, might fill his creel with not a whoop to 
apprise you. Just sheer modesty, that! At all 
events, this fellow did not escape and was 
laid out, with another nine-incher of mine, upon 
the grass, while we gathered moss, gazed awhile 
upon the brilliant coloring of the males, and the 
more subdued but beautiful steel blue sheen of 
the females, and then returned sixteen very 
decent fish to our respective creels, exactly 
eight each. 
In the evening, when packing our fish in ice 
to keep for my return home, we counted twenty- 
eight trout, twenty of which I next day laid in 
wet moss in my creel and brought to Manhat¬ 
tan, where they have been exhibited to less 
fortunate friends and acquaintances, laid out 
picturesquely upon a platter, or a bed of green 
moss. 
Finallv they were so persistently and conscien¬ 
tiously admired, that I never had a taste of 
one of the twenty fish. But that is the very 
least part of a trip for speckled trout. 
Darius Dalrymple. 
Salmon Fishing in Maine. 
Dr. W. H. Hemenway, of New York city, was 
at Grand Lake stream, in Washington county, 
Maine, last week. He informed us that the sal¬ 
mon fishing was excellent there, and added: “I 
never had such sport in my life.” 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Little Talks About Fly-Fishing. 
Sullivan County, N. Y., June 8 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The merry month of May has blown 
itself out and summer begins with a cold storm 
from the east. Spring was very late this year. Snow 
fell and ice formed at night after the middle of 
May. The seed corn that was planted at the usual 
time failed to germinate and rotted in the ground. 
In spite of the uncomfortable weather conditions 
trout fishing has been quite good. There was 
much less rain than usual in April and the 
streams were low and clear. The streams have 
risen occasionally during the past month, but 
have rarely been too much discolored for fly¬ 
fishing. High winds have interfered consider¬ 
ably with the angler’s pleasure, but we have had 
a few days when water, wind and weather were 
favorable, and the trout rose well. Unless the 
day was very cold there was usually a hatch of 
flies sometimes between 11 A. M. and 4 P. M. 
and sport was good for one or two hours. Of 
course the energetic fisherman who toiled all the 
day would have the best basket at night, but his 
captures were rather infrequent, except during 
the short period of the rise. 
For a time the natural flies were mostly duns 
of various descriptions, but latterly there have 
been a good many small caddis flies on the water. 
These do not sail down gracefully after the man¬ 
ner of the ephemera, but struggle and buzz upon 
the water. It is extremely difficult to imitate 
their movements, although a man who is an ex¬ 
pert in manipulating his drop fly may be suc¬ 
cessful. By moving this drop fly four or five 
feet up the casting line one can command the 
water at fair range. If the flies are close to¬ 
gether one can only dap the dropper with a short 
line. In imitating these small flies the buzz form, 
without wings, seems best, but it is often diffi¬ 
cult to find hackles of the proper colors. You 
will note that these hackle flies have some re¬ 
semblance to the buzzing fly on the water. How¬ 
ever, it may pay best to fish a single winged fly 
on the surface. One can only discover which is 
best by experimenting. 
Last week there was a good rise of what I 
call the small spring brown. Very late in the 
season, I think, for this fly, and the body is 
quite light colored. It will become still paler as 
the weather grows warmer. This is one of the 
ephemera and a very pretty fly. There is an¬ 
other brown dun which is nearly twice the size 
of this one, and changes into a very handsome 
spinner. In the angler’s life there is much dis- 
coftifort and many disappointments, but fortu¬ 
nately he remembers only his good days, or, if 
he remembers the times of misfortune, it is in 
a humorous way. He laughs at the miseries he 
has experienced in the past. One afternoon will 
stand out in my recollections of the past spring 
as blessed for all time to come. The day was 
bright with a strong wind blowing and I hap¬ 
pened to be well placed when the hatch of natural 
flies began about half past one. Trout of fair 
size began rising and by the time the flies dis¬ 
appeared I had basketed sixteen which made a 
brave show, filling a large tray. 
Contrast this experience with another after¬ 
noon when the stream was filled with sawdust 
and bits of floating wood. Not a fly on the 
water and not a trout to be seen anywhere. A 
stranger might have imagined that the river was 
barren of game fish. The water soaked through 
my wading stockings and my legs and feet felt 
as if I was weighted down for deep sea diving. 
My old rod gave out in driving the line against 
the wind and I felt as disconsolate as if the 
sorrows of the nations had been placed upon 
my shoulders. It is all right; we must take the 
rough with the smooth, but I wish some genius 
would invent really comfortable wading gear. 
My outfit, when wet, must weigh in the neigh¬ 
borhood of ten pounds, and one’s feet are in a 
state of constant discomfort. 
If a few pounds will handicap a horse, how 
much more must a mere man feel the ill effects 
of such weights as we have to carry. A great 
many fishermen now wear long rubber boots, but 
they are slippery and dangerous in a large, rough 
stream. I believe that some of these are made 
with leather soles and hob nails, but fear that 
these would be very heavy and unwieldy. 
[June 15 , 1907 . 
If we could increase the stock of natural flies, 
fishing would probably improve. All the best 
sport this spring has been had during “the time 
of the take” or hatch of natural flies. There 
would be less temptation to use minnows and 
worms as bait if the trout were seen rising freely 
at flies. Minnow fishing particularly seems to 
spoil sport for the man who follows. One has 
a fair chance in a large stream after many fly- 
fishers have been over the water, but minnows 
seem to disturb or scare the trout that are not 
pricked or killed. When there is a rise of flies 
and of trout we can usually find water suitable 
for dry-fly fishing, and that method certainly has 
its fascinations. I sometimes fancy that in these 
mountain rivers the angler who sticks to the 
wet fly will in the long run kill more fish, but 
when one has been touched with the dry-fly 
mania he often wishes to fish that way when 
conditions are not favorable. 
It has been pointed out to me that wet-fly 
fishing, as practiced by the best American 
anglers, does not at all resemble “sunk fly” or 
“chuck and chance it” as described by many 
Englishmen and the school of the dry-fly gen¬ 
erally. We fish up stream, often to rising trout, 
and one or more false casts are made in the 
air to free the fly and tackle from moisture and 
spread the hackle. The fly may not be dry, but 
it is on or very close to the surface. Rises are 
as distinctly seen as in dry-fly fishing and the 
strike follows in the instant or the trout is 
missed. Englishmen usually by “wet-fly” refer 
to down stream fishing, with two or more flies 
well sunk, and it would appear from some of 
the quotations made by my correspondents that 
the trout are expected to hook themselves or to 
be struck when the rise (or bite) is felt, but 
not seen. I know a number of Americans who 
fish the dry-fly with perfect grace and precision, 
but they do- not practice it exclusively or make 
a fetish of it. Francis Francis, one of the great¬ 
est of British anglers, practiced all three methods 
of fly-fishing, dry, wet and sunk, also- up and 
down streams, as the occasion necessitated, but 
he belonged to no particular school, as he seems 
to have fished in all parts of the United King¬ 
dom. 
In spite of the cold and backward spring it 
-is blessed to be in the trout- country again. 
Scarcely a leaf was to be seen on the trees until 
the middle of May or even a little later, but all 
the fruit trees are now in bloom, lovely and 
fragrant to- the beholder. The birds arrived 
earlier than last year, but the cold weather seems 
to have made them less tuneful than usual. 
There have been a few warm bright days when 
they seemed to- be united in a full chorus of 
song and thanksgiving for the good gifts of 
spring weather and a happy summer to come, 
but at times it has struck me that they were 
remarkably silent. They cannot enjoy cold, 
windy weather much more than we do. 
What becomes of the big trout that are no] 
killed by the angler? These fish are often well 
known, and when taken are sure to be recorded, 
yet after dwelling in the same pool for a number 
of years they vanish. Probably they go out of 
condition after a time, become old and weak, 
and are swept away by the next spring flood 
to form food for the eels. All big trout should 
be warned in time and get themselves caught 
before they become too old and seedy to do any¬ 
body good. I know a big chap that has con¬ 
sidered the matter several times this spring. He 
comes at the fly or bait and then turns a way. 
The trouble is that he is overwise and may go 
to the eels if he is not careful. However, I have 
hopes of him in spite of the contempt with which 
he has treated the most refined and courteous 
invitations. Theodore Gordon. 
Brown Trout in Lake Placid. 
The forest protectors last week placed 50,000 
brook trout fry in Lake Placid, in the Adirou- 
dacks, or 2,000,000 all told this season. Besides 
these, 50.000 lake trout fry and large numbers of 
small whitefish have been planted. Anglers have 
latelv caught a few of the brown trout that were [ 
put in Lake Placid two or three years ago, and 
are pleased with the fight they put up before the 
landing net can be used. 
