EtB. 25, I911.] 
301 
oppression stultifies the energy in his delicate 
organs; now some stimulating wave draws him 
and he responds with the sureness of steel to 
a magnet. 
Ihc enormous vanity of bumptious man” will 
tell you it is a far-fetched fancy. It attacks his 
vain glory; it belittles his comprehensiveness. It 
lifts the creature too high over his boastful do¬ 
minion. So it will draw from him a pitying 
pooh. ’ Neither his heaven nor his earth holds 
such undreamt of philosophy. 
bor all that, my brother anglers, I would ask 
you to hold an open mind till you have bestowed 
upon it a fair research. Though a thousand 
years might not unveil to us the whole of the 
truth, we cannot fish for even fifty without learn¬ 
ing something, and I give you my slowly acquired 
impression, very humbly, for what it is worth. 
1 believe that fish are actuated from hour to 
hour, sometimes from moment to moment, by 
atmospheric waves, reaching them from near or 
far, titillating their super-sensitive organisms into 
activity, or stilling them to sluggishness; causing 
buoyancy or depression, hunger or nausea, when 
the state of the water is normal and has noth¬ 
ing to do with it. 
1 hough a vast deal more may be said, there 
f°i ^ le P resent I leave it. J. Berryman. 
Fishing in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., beb. 13.— Editor Forest 
a,> d Stream: The open season for steelhead 
fishing ended Jan. 31, and for a couple of months 
there will be no sport of this kind enjoyed, even 
in tide water. The California Anglers’ Asso¬ 
ciation is working to have legislation enacted 
permitting the taking of steelhead trout in tide¬ 
water the entire year with hook and line. The 
fish are just now commencing to run, and dur¬ 
ing the best season of the year there is no sport 
It is claimed that the number of fish taken by- 
rod fishermen amounts to practically nothing, 
and that an all-year open season would not affect 
the supply of the game fish. It is proposed to 
put a stop to net fishing and to prohibit the sale 
of the fish also. In former years fishing was 
allowed during February and March, and fine 
sport was to be had then in the small streams 
flowing into the ocean near San Francisco. 
1 he action of certain landowners in the moun¬ 
tain districts in prohibiting fishing on their hold¬ 
ings has brought about the introduction of a 
bill in the Legislature providing that highways 
may be condemned by boards of supervisors of 
the various counties along unnavigable streams 
for the use of fishermen. Some objection was 
made by assemblymen from districts where there 
were gardens and orchards close to streams, but 
the measure was passed by a vote of 68 to 8. 
The San Francisco Striped Bass Club held its 
annual meeting and banquet recently, and the 
prizes for the past year’s sport were distributed. 
C. L. Johnson was awarded the prize for taking 
the largest striped bass, this being a 27-pound 
hsh. 1 here were others taken of greater weight 
>ut not under club rules and conditions. The 
best striped bass fishing continues to be in the 
vicinity of Napa Creek, and Wingo and San 
Antonio sloughs are being visited by but few. 
hese latter grounds have not been frequented 
by the finny tribe to any extent during the past 
season, and most of the San Francisco anglers 
aie now seeking the new grounds. A. P. B. 
The Royal Coachman Fly. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Feb. 12.—Editor 
Forest and Stream: I have just read with much 
interest the article, “The Coachman,” in your 
last issue by Ladd Plumley. It is the more in¬ 
teresting to me because of a like experience I 
have had. For years I have been using the 
royal coachman as my leading fly, and I have 
caught rainbow trout with the royal coachman 
in every month from and including March to 
and including November. I have found it even 
better than the coachman for our waters here 
But in our nearby streams no fly will catch or 
kill trout after a hard downpour of rain. This 
is because the water is then full of red clay that 
colors it so that it is quite impossible to see any¬ 
thing big or little through a half-inch of water. 
Ihis is of course quite different in mountain 
streams, or other streams not so colored. I 
have seen the water in mountain streams— where 
the top soil had not been disturbed and there 
were no fields or cultivated ground — become 
quite dark in color, but if a glass were filled 
with it, one can easily see a fly through it; but if 
you fill a small bottle half an inch in diameter 
with our red-clayed water, you can see nothing 
through it. 
Like Mr. Plumley, I keep my royal coachman 
always as my leading fly, and change the upper 
two as needed. Usually I begin the spring with 
royal coachman, bee and Cahill; these last two 
supplemented from time to time with the 
caddis, black gnat, cinnamon brown, etc. I 
killed ten nice rainbow trout on the 10th of 
November some years ago, the ground being 
white with frost when I stepped into the water, 
and it was so cold I had to get out and rub 
myself to get my blood warm. The rainbow 
took the royal coachman. The combination of 
white, green and red seems to take the fancy of 
30th rainbow and brook trout in our streams, 
and if I had to use only one fly, I would take 
the royal coachman. 
It will be both interesting 'and instructive—to 
me at least-to know Mr. Plumley’s experience 
with the royal coachman as compared with the 
coachman—whether the red band of the former 
is against it in the waters he has fished. My 
angling has been local—the mountain streams 
. western North Carolina only. I am all the 
time on the qui vive for information. Nos. 10 
and 8 are the best sizes here, and I may add 
J\o. 12. 
a/ m " ch interested ’ too, in the article of 
, I • Davidson, and I am going to ask Theo¬ 
dore Gordon for the pattern of “Gordon’s 
-ancy fly. I want to have some tied on barb¬ 
less hooks. I used none but barbless last year. 
I plant many thousands of trout in our waters 
every year and do not care to kill the finger¬ 
ings as so many do. Hence the reason of my 
adopting the barbless—it is in the interest of 
true sport - __ E. L. Ewbank. 
Fishing in Florida. 
Chicago, Ill., Feb. 7—Editor Forest and 
Stream: William Wolfarth and I. H. Bellows, 
of the Chicago Fly-Casting Club, and George 
A. Murrell, of the Illinois Casting Club, will go 
to Florida this month on an angling trip. 
Mr. Wolfarth goes to New Orleans and 
Havana, returning to Eustis, Florida, on the 
Divide, where many cold fresh water lakes 
abound with the gamy bass of large size, and 
at this point Mr. Murrell will meet him for a 
week together. They are both anglers and 
artists of the highest order and will leave their 
impress on the curiosity of the finny tribe of that 
section. 
Mr. Bellows goes to the Flagler Ranch for 
tarpon. He has some “fever” in his arm and 
wants to work it out on a large scale. 
IT. A. Newkirk. 
Fisherman’s Club of Chicago. 
Chicago, Ill., Feb. 1 8 —Editor Forest and 
•Stream: The Fisherman’s Club of Chicago is 
a unique body. There is no set purpose except 
foregathering once a year; there are no dues; 
there are no officers except a secretary, who re¬ 
signs yearly; there are no membership require¬ 
ments—every good fellow fisherman is, by virtue 
of such, a member; there is no property. In- 
C“i 
<© 
A 
W / / - 
INVITATION CARD OF THE FISHERMAN’S CLUB OF CHICAGO. 
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