228 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Fishing’s Great 
in the 
Deep Maine Woods 
Every delight of the wilds under 
conditions as easy or as rigorous 
as you care to make them. 
HUNTING, CANOEING, 
CAMPING, HIKING 
in the finest virgin country, 
teeming with fish and all kinds 
of game. 
Experienced guides, licensed by 
the State of Maine, make condi¬ 
tions ideal for the safe enjoy¬ 
ment of the solitudes. All facil¬ 
ities for the comfort of ladies 
and youngsters. 
Allagash River canoe 
trips through unbroken 
forest—20 to 200 miles. 
Easily accessible and not expensive 
—through sleepers. 
Send 10 cents for a copy of 
In the Maine Woods, 1917.” 
Articles, illustrations and col¬ 
ored sectional maps showing 
fishing waters, distances and 
how to take the many trips 
available. It gives routes, 
locations of hotels and 
camps . and their rates, in¬ 
formation about guides—in 
short all one wishes to know. 
The supply of these books is 
limited. Send at once. 
Address l acatioti Bureau 
Department C 
Bangor, Me. 
A Reel Sensation! 
Here is a new reel that double; 
the pleasure of fly fishing. 
In mechanical perfection, the Rainbow Reel 1 
equal to the best importec 
type, while at its price, it 1 
unquestionably the best fli 
reel that money can buy 
Exceptionally light 
weighing only 3 % 0 z., ye 
strong enough tl> stand th< 
hardest, usage. Compact ir 
size, yet gives good line ca¬ 
pacity. 
So perfectly balanced, s< 
smooth running so sturdy 
so convenient in its "taka- 
part" feature, Uiat you se- 
, ^ure a degree of pleasun 
t from fly fishing never befon 
'f ) experienced. Price $5.00. 
FREE: Send for de 
scriptive pamphlet 
A. F. Meisselbach & Bro. 
3 Congress St., Newark, N. J. 
TO LURE THE WILY TROUT 
(continued 
stream. This general impression is, and 
must be, the ground work of our imita¬ 
tion. 
C ONSIDERATIONS of convenience 
often lead us to be content with 
something short of what we might 
with more labor accomplish. After all, 
when it is remembered that the trout, 
under advantageous circumstances, sees 
our artificial fly for but one critical mo¬ 
ment, we can easily believe that after 
a certain stage is reached, each degree 
of closer resemblance to nature has a 
smaller value than the last; and that if 
the main characteristics of the natural 
are expressed in the artificial, the latter 
may be considered a good one. 
Take the Olive Dun for example. This 
fly lias a body olive ^een down the 
back, olive yellow underneath, and sides 
ribbed with both colors. Since the 
sides are most exposed to the view of 
the fish, their impresion on the eye must 
so predominate as to make it sufficient 
that the whole body of the artificial 
should uniformly resemble them. 
I omitted to mention, in my remarks 
regarding the state of consciousness, ex¬ 
isting in a feeding fish, that quite a num¬ 
ber of anglers advocate a theory that 
has for its basis the statement that the 
best results are obtained by the use of an 
artificial fly resembling the natural in 
most respects, but with such a difference 
as might' be expected to excite curiosity 
but not engender fright. There is some¬ 
thing in this worthy of our attention; 
at a future date I will allude to it. If 
applied only at times, when fish are not 
on the feed, it is worthy of consideration; 
otherwise it depends upon an obvious 
fallacy, when its application is extended. 
When the fish have banqueted to satiety 
and have retired to enjoy their siesta 
sub-tegmine fagi, it is useless to make an 
appeal to their appetites; and a more 
puerile proceeding cannot he conceived 
than to catch some insect that may be 
in evidence in the locality, tie its coun¬ 
terpart beside the stream, and hope by 
this procedure to secure a rise. This 
advice you will find in the literature of 
angling. Candor compels me to state 
that I pursued this idiotic method, the 
success of which can be very easily sur¬ 
mised. 
D O not for a moment imagine that 
the exact imitation theory is the 
only successful appeal that can be 
made to the salmonidae. The statement 
is not correct, and misleading to the 
angler in the extreme. In a short 
article of this character, it is only pos¬ 
sible to outline the leading points, leav¬ 
ing out the details; and these details 
are sometimes of the greatest import¬ 
ance. In another letter, it will be a 
pleasure to me to tell you the proper 
course to pursue when fish are not feed¬ 
ing, and the flies that are most efficient 
for their capture when lethargic. To do 
this part of it requires careful study, but 
you have my assurance that I will make 
no statement I cannot substantiate by 
logical reasoning. 
FROM PAGE 204) 
Fact confirms the inference, that as 
dry-fly fishing is a development of wet- 
fly fishing, of a necessity the artificial 
lures employed in the newer style should 
be developments of those used in the 
older. In the hackle and wings of the 
dry-fly, the results of this developing 
process are chiefly noticeable. The ex¬ 
cessive number of the fibres of the 
hackles for the purpose, is firstly, of 
supporting the fly when it is in contact 
with the surface of the water, and sec¬ 
ondly, of affording greater resistance to 
its descent, also decreasing the impetus 
of its impact on the water. The split- 
wings usually employed, acting like a 
parachute, fulfil the same purpose. 
I N almost every case of practical im¬ 
portance, a body which does not sink 
to the bottom, displaces a quantity of 
fluid equal in weight to itself. This 
Archimedean rule is but of minor import¬ 
ance to the dry-fly angler. There is a 
great difference between the molecular 
structure of the particles at the surface 
of the fluid, and those beneath. The 
cohesive power of the latter is practically 
nothing, whereas that of the former is 
such as to cause the surface of the liquid 
to assume all the properties of an elastic 
skin. This will explain t the well-known 
fact that a dry and well polished needle 
will float. If the surface of the needle 
be rough, the water will creep over it, 
and the supporting skin beneath give 
way. 
Place a dry-fly on the surface of the 
water, in an upright or “cocked’' posi¬ 
tion. Its displacement is very small, 
little more than the bend of the hook 
being under water. Sink the fly, press¬ 
ing it well under the water. On the 
pressure being removed, if it be a typical 
dry-fly it wil rise rapidly until the tips 
of the wings touch the surface, where 
it will remain entirely submerged,—held 
down by the elastic skin on the water, 
which before, when it was floating proper¬ 
ly, held it up. 
T HE influence of this elastic skin in 
dry-fly fishing, is supreme. The 
case of the dry-fly made of feathers, 
which have lost their natural oil, is such 
that the stretched elastic skin will creep 
over it and pull the fly beneath the sur¬ 
face. Since the surface of oil and 
water will not adhere, oiling the 
feathers prevents the water from creep¬ 
ing over the fly—enabling it to float for 
a much longer time. This is the secret 
of the “oil tip,” indispensable in aiding 
the angler to dry his fly when off the 
water, and equally important when the 
fly is on the water. 
I suggest the following “oil tip” to my 
brother anglers, as being an exceedingly 
good one. Place a few pieces of paraffine 
wax in a wide-mouth bottle, add twice 
the volume of paraffine oil. Place the 
bottle in hot water, shaking it now and 
again untii the wax and oil are thor¬ 
oughly mixed together. Now immerse 
the flies in it for a few minutes, then 
take them out and press them gently 
between two folds of a cloth, to remove 
