106 
drake, soldier drake, and needle tail. The 
drakes are used dry on the surface, the 
shad-fly and needle tail are fished wet. 
In wet fishing with two or three flies orv 
your leader, the largest in size should al¬ 
ways be placed on the tail or end of the 
. If the weather is warm and mild 
round the ist of May, the brown drake,, 
fished dry, will get trout to rise. If it is- 
cold and gloomy, high, cold water, the 
female shad, as end. fly, and needle tail, as- 
upper fly, may be fished wet. 
Normal weather in May forces an abun¬ 
dance of flies of various species. Trout 
are bold and voracious, being less careful! 
should be a shade finer than the end of the 
line and the graded fineness should be al¬ 
most invisible, except for the knots, of 
which the fewer there are, the better. The 
loop to which you tie the line should +>e 
made as small as possible; indeed no larger 
than just room enough for the line to go 
through, for the simple reason where the 
gut is so thick a long double gut loop 
interferes largely with a graceful cast of 
very light flies. 
There are various favorite modes of at¬ 
taching gut loops to line. The one I favor 
is a safe one, instantly untied without 
trouble, though, after a little use it frays 
the end of the line about an inch, but it is 
the best I know. 
The length of the leader should be ad¬ 
justed to fit the length of rod, measuring 
from the tip to enable you to hold the end 
fly between finger and thumb at the rod 
handle grasp. Many inconveniences occur 
if the leader is shorter or longer. The gut 
should never be drawn through the tip 
guide. For wet fishing with three flies, 
the distance apart from the end fly should 
be three feet, and the length of gut in two 
dropper flies should be three inches from 
the leader, and both gut droppers must be 
exactly the same thickness of gut where 
tied on the leader. 
Never attach a snelled fly on your leader; 
don’t use snelled flies at end of leader con¬ 
nected by a double loop. Eyed flies are 
the only possible thing in fine fly fishing, so 
tie the end fly by means of a neat, safe knot. 
If you want a perfect rig all three flies 
must be attached without loops. No expert 
permits gut loops. They are most detri¬ 
mental to good casting, and for that reason 
you should thoroughly understand how to 
tie various knots and know the peculiarities 
of gut. Never fish without testing your 
gut leader; much better, indeed, for you 
to pull it apart than have the mortification 
of a large trout doing so> 
Eyed hooks should never have a loose 
end of gut sticking out—tie well, and trim 
close, have a neatly tied fly. Never begin 
casting to a fish with a dry gut leader, it 
must be perfectly straight and thoroughly 
soaked when it falls on the water. A cork¬ 
screw shaped leader is a dead sure scarer 
of trout. A leader box with damp felt is 
very essential, saves time and gives comfort. 
THE BEST FLIES TO CATCH TROUT. 
A FTER many years’ careful study in 
the preparation of my book, “Amer¬ 
ican Trout Stream Insects,” I have out¬ 
grown the age of bumptious assumption to 
dictate or even advise a selected list of 
flies, though I see others do continue to 
tell their angling brethren that the coach¬ 
man, black gnat, Wickham’s fancy, etc., are 
good flies. 
I am quite aware also, that salt is good 
on potatoes. Nobody so far has seen fit 
to deny that if you select from your book a 
copy of some insect you see trout feed on, 
or the insect you see most abundant if 
trout are not feeding—then you have the 
right fly to allure all trout, big or little, for 
you cannot fail to win success because you 
take no chances. 
I could hardly do otherwise than advise 
anglers to use American nature flies, which 
are tied to imitate exactly all the most 
abundant insects the trout consume as food. 
Indeed, I conceive the time is not far dis¬ 
tant when anglers will never dream of using 
fancy flies, or throw a useless bunch of 
colored feathers any old way, but they will 
use a method founded on common sense 
and simple reason. 
Should the quarry be quite large where 
you fish, it is not necessary to use a large 
fly. The average insect fits on a No. 8 
and io hook. 
During the month of May there are about 
three large drakes and four duns, also a 
few large spinners. In June the rise of 
large insects diminishes—two drakes and 
four duns. In July all the most abundant 
insects are small. Except in isolated in¬ 
stances you see a few large stone-flies that 
appear only on dull, cloudy days or late 
evenings. 
The shad-fly is abundant from early May 
till middle of June, and the brown drake 
(march brown) seem to be on the wing 
at the same time and places along with the 
shad-fly. Unless the weather is exceed¬ 
ingly mild, which it rarely is, when the 
season opens April 15, insects are small 
and scanty. 
You see few trout rising before May 1, 
under the normal conditions of the higher 
altitudes, cold winds, frost, after sundown, 
and the river ice cold. Warm April days 
induce a rise of female shad-fly, brown 
to choose their diet than in any other 
month of the year. May fishing is the least 
difficult because there is plenty of food and' 
the fish are visibly feeding all the day and* 
night. Towards the middle of May the 
large green drake appears in growing abun¬ 
dance; then next in value is brown drake, 
sandy, black gnat, yellow sally, alder and 
golden spinner; all appear on the water if 
the' weather is near normal. The shad-fly, 
male and female, is present in varying 
numbers throughout the month, and for 
that reason is perhaps the best fly of all to- 
use under the changing conditions of so- 
erratic a month -as May. 
Buy no snelled flies, tie your own knots 
on eyed hook flies, make a neat, firm knot 
with gut end trimmed, close to the eye, 
after being pulled to a good hard test while- 
the gut is wet. Never begin real fly cast¬ 
ing for trout till your gut leader is soaked' 
to work stretched out straight, and the- 
flies stand away, following the leader to- 
dro,p light on the water. A stiff, circular 
cork-screw leader will scare the fish. 
The minor accessories—net, waders, bas¬ 
ket, clothing, are all a matter of personal 
preference. The reel is not important ex¬ 
cept that it should be a good single click 
reel with a fair sized handle to wind easy 
and rapid, and the spool large enough to- 
have space left after your line is wound. 
An overwound reel is a nuisance, because- 
the line then does not wind even and be¬ 
comes tangled. 
It must be a source of regret to other 
writers, along with myself, that editors 
deem it wise to prohibit the mention of 
various makers, and dealers who supply the 
craft with tackle. I admit the justice of 
it, but For the reader’s sake I could wish 
that in some way an arrangement could be- 
worked wherein the writer could mention- 
what is best to select. It can be said, how¬ 
ever, that the finer art of fly fishing for 
trout does require, or rather the best fish¬ 
ing is infinitely more easy and successful' 
with the more expensive and best equipment. 
Legitimate, sportsmanlike fishing is al¬ 
together different than the method pur¬ 
sued by the country youth, with pole, string 
and rusty nail for sinker, and a big fat 
worm or minnow as bait. The comparison 
is indeed very odious, but the two methods 
produce very different results if the real 
angler is fairly well up in the ways of the 
craft, and habit of the trout. 
