252 
FOREST AND STREAM 
JUNE, 1917 
TROUT / HABITS, LURES AND THEIR USE 
II. LORE OF THE REAL EXPERTS ON THIS FASCINATING TOPIC 
REVEALS WHAT FLIES TO USE AND WHEN TO USE THEM 
HEN it 
comes to 
the manip¬ 
ulation of the fly 
after it has been cast 
—•“fishing the fly”— 
our real expert does 
not draw it against 
the current in using 
the wet fly. After 
casting it up and 
across the stream, he 
draws it diagonally 
across and down, on 
or just under the sur¬ 
face generally, and 
recovers it with the 
back cast before it 
comes to a stop by 
the straightening of 
the line. 
The fly should al¬ 
most always be played 
over or through the 
water deliberately, not 
quickly. It should re¬ 
main a perceptible 
time, and longer on 
still water. A good 
plan is to pause after it alights—draw a 
short distance—pause—draw again—pause 
—and then make the back cast. Flies are 
best played upon the surface by an up¬ 
ward and backward movement of the rod; 
under the surface, by a side and upward 
movement. 
It is better to use but one fly in stream 
fishing, and two for lake fishing. When 
using two the dropper may just touch the 
•water occasionally, the tail fly then being 
under. Mr. Southard commends fishing 
From the Pool at the Left, Just Below 
ix Inches Long, Were 
A Typical “Real 
Expert ” 
By GEORGE PARKER HOLDEN 
with the fly from four to six inches un¬ 
derneath the surface in calm water with¬ 
out a ripple; also the plan of making a 
few false casts, placing the fly within an 
inch or two of the surface before landing 
it quietly, when fish are rising to the sur¬ 
face. 
Striking the Fish —■ 
The following advice is pertinent with 
regard to hooking, or striking, the fish. It 
must be done very quickly in clear water 
with a snappy rise; quickly in roily water 
with an ordinary rise; slowly when a slow 
rise. The greater the slack in the line 
the greater must be the force of the strike; 
less force is required on than under the 
surface; less force in swift than in still 
water. A slack line and low rod point 
means that the fly is submerged. 
Large fish generally rise deliberately, 
often quietly sucking in the lure rather 
than “striking”; and they should then be 
struck deliberately. 
Most Popular Flies — 
A S to the patterns of flies to use, of 
the hundreds named and stocked by 
dealers, what may be said here? Kit 
Clarke’s favorites were: Brown Hackle, 
Montreal, Cahill, Coachman, Black Gnat, 
(continued on page 276) 
THE CHARM OF THE ESOPUS 
II. DAME FORTUNE, FICKLE JADE, TURNS HUMILIATION 
INTO VICTORY, AND CALLS THE CREEL BET AN EVEN DRAW 
By P. ALLEN PARSONS 
H OWEVER, trout angling has taught 
me that the slow and careful fisher¬ 
man is the one most apt to succeed, 
and that a trout may be anywhere in the 
stream where there’s water enough to swim 
in. So I lengthened my line and went down 
into that pool literally inch by inch, and 
covered it foot by foot from bank to bank. 
A Hare’s Ear and a Beaverkill were now 
my flies. And it was the tiny Hare’s Ear, 
tied on a Number 14 hook, that did the 
trick. 
The fly flipped into the tail of a little 
eddy, and slap !—a trout had it. He hooked 
himself, or I might have lost him. For I 
was as much surprised as the disappointed 
hunter who, having ranged the woods all 
day without a shot, flushes a big ruffed 
the Rapids, Twelve Trout,, From 8 to 
Taken Within Two Hours 
grouse after he has given up the search, 
home-bound, unexpecting and therefore un¬ 
prepared. 
I made short work of that trout—not 
that I derricked him to the bank, but I put 
all the strain I dared upon my five ounce 
split bamboo and soon had the red spotted 
fighter in my net. When you have passed 
a whole year looking forward to creeling a 
trout, you are not apt to have too much 
patience in getting your victim into your 
possession. As I raised the dripping and 
wiggling quarry from the water you know 
what sensations were mine! 
So I got my thrill. My hours of earnest 
and careful effort had found their reward; 
a ten-inch brown trout, as fat as butter and 
as beautiful as a sunset. As I added him 
to my creel, I thought: Well, I’ve forty 
minutes more to make him plural instead of 
singular; suppose the two ladies are beat¬ 
ing me out! For it would never do to meet 
them at lunch with but a single trout, they 
with several. 
A T first I thought to avoid that long 
stretch of riffles and strike in below 
where there was probably better 
chance of success. But the old habit of 
thoroughness interposed, and I went ahead 
determined to try it all. I had hardly got¬ 
ten through the pool before a trout hurled 
himself at my Hare’s Ear. I struck so 
quickly it almost seemed as though I 
hooked him while he was in the air. A 
few moments of frenzied rushing, and he 
too found his way into the creel. So near 
in size was he to the other that he might 
well have come from the same batch of 
spawn. Down those riffles I went, at the 
most unfavorable time of day, raising trout 
in some places with scarcely four inches of 
water, in others in miniature pools in the 
lee of rocks. Dame Fortune, who had for¬ 
saken me all the morning, proved herself a 
fickle jade indeed, for here in a half hour 
