June 13, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
94 T 
Recent Publications. 
“Dry-Fly Fishing for Trout and Grayling; 
With Some Advice to a Beginner in the 
Art.” By “Red Quill” (James EnglefieldL 
Cloth, 211 pages. London, Horace Cox. 
American anglers who are fond of fishing for 
trout with floating flies, and who have read Red 
Quill's contributions on the subject to Bailey's 
Magazine and the Field, will be glad to learn 
that his best papers on the subject are now ob¬ 
tainable in book form. 
Mr. Englefield describes minutely the outfit 
of the dry-fly angler, and in order to enliven the 
narrative, in fancy takes the reader with him on 
a day’s fishing, thus making a pretty story of 
what is intended for detailed instruction. 
In the choice of a rod and a line, however, 
few of our anglers will be likely to follow Mr. 
Englefield's advice, for in this country dry-fly 
fishing is dene with light tackle. His prefer¬ 
ence is a rod of 11 feet, weighing 11 ounces, 
and this weight does not include the spear af¬ 
fected by some British anglers, for he sees no 
advantage in its use. Instead of a tapered line 
with a fairly heavy belly, he uses a fine braided 
silk level line, and a nine-foot tapered leader, 
also very fine. In these respects he differs radi¬ 
cally with Frederic M. Halford and other dry- 
fly men, who believe in fairly heavy tapered 
lines. Certainly one cannot successfully cast 
against the wind with a Red Quill outfit, and 
this he partially admits by saying that if the 
wind is too strong he shifts his ground until 
he finds more sheltered places. 
It was Horace Cox who averred that a dry- 
fly purist was “one thoroughly imbued with the 
divitie afflatus of fishing.” Mr. Englefield’s defi¬ 
nition follows: 
“He has gradually arrived at perfection in his 
fascinating art, first of all and chiefly by con¬ 
stant practice and experience; by watching the 
methods of experts by the riverside and avoid¬ 
ing the mistakes of some not yet expert; by the 
discriminating choice of suitable rods, lines, casts 
and flies, landing net, etc.; also by hints and 
knowledge gained in reading the current angling 
literature of the day, and modern books on the 
subject. To the dry-fly purist no other sport 
can vie with it; he cares for no other sort of 
fishing (in my case for no other sport), never 
resorts to the wet fly lure, although finding no 
fault with those good fishermen who do use 
it. He kills no small fish, nor any out of con¬ 
dition; is content with moderate sport, espec¬ 
ially if obtained under adverse conditions prov¬ 
ing his patience and skill. Therefore, it need 
hardly be said he is no pot-hunter, save in the 
limited sense that he nearly always presents his 
spoil to his friends. Further, he prefers small 
flies to large; consequently—and for other rea¬ 
sons—he often does not join the May fly enthu¬ 
siasts, whose sport is sometimes like mere 
slaughter. He is humane to a degree in care¬ 
fully unhooking and also in returning fish *0 
a river so as to avoid injuring them, in need, 
supporting them at its side until they recover 
from the shock of being pulled out—so contrary 
to the practice of many anglers who toss them 
through the air when, on falling, they are often 
injured by concussion with the water. In fact, 
dry-fly fishing reduces the cruelty of angling 
to a minimum and is a good argument in its 
favor. The dry-fly purist is a contemplative 
man, always in love with nature in her varying 
beauties, and not least so, when in his delight 
ful environment by the riverside the weather is 
favorable for his sport, but even then his skid 
is at fault until there is a ‘hatchout’ of flies on 
the water—as the metamorphosis of nymphae to 
sub-imagoes is often erroneously termed, and 
fish are taking them. Then he makes the best 
of his opportunities. He does not, however, 
‘hammer away’ for long over a particular fish, 
but leaving him for a time, quietly retires from 
the bank so as not to scare him and other fish 
away.” 
A Day’s Bass Fishing. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
As I sat on the porch last evening enjoying 
the soft balmy air and clear atmosphere, listen¬ 
ing to the notes of the blackbird, oriole, robin 
and whippoorwill, I was reminded of a trip 
along the Raystown branch some years ago in 
company with three other anglers, all good fly- 
fishermen and royal good fellows to be with, 
only Muz was determined to have a larger count 
of fish than his brother Button, even if he did 
ha\;e to count sunnies and fall fish which we 
called “blue meat.” 
When we struck the stream we found it yel¬ 
low, muddy and high. We gathered a few 
grasshoppers, dug a few angle worms, and 
started to drown them and broil ourselves in 
the hot sun. After fishing all the afternoon we 
had caught all told about eight eels, sunfish, bass 
and fall fish. 
The following morning after a hearty break¬ 
fast we again tackled the stream and found it 
had run off to about its normal size, but still 
too cloudy for' fly-fishing. About noon Button 
and I concluded we would try the flies regard¬ 
less of water conditions. Muz said to Pard, 
“Come with me. They won’t catch any. I 
know just where to go.” 
With smiles of amusement on our faces—for 
I think each fellow had made up his mind that 
the cake was all dough—we separated, Muz and 
Pard going to the east side of the stream, while 
Button and I remained on the west side and 
proceeded to rig up our casting lines. While 
engaged at this pleasant task I noticed that the 
stream was* rapidly clearing on our side, and 
called my friend’s attention to the fact. We 
had fished but a short distance until we found 
that the fish were also on our side, too, and by 
the time we were opposite the other fellows 
the fish were rising in great shape to our flies. 
We were catching two quite often, and some¬ 
times three at a cast; and I have to laugh yet 
when I think of the way those fellows looked 
at us, then at one another, then up stream, then 
down to see the best and quickest way to our 
side, as the water was too deep on their side 
to wade; a quarter of a mile to walk up stream 
or take chances of a ducking by ’cooning it 
along the sides of an almost perpendicular rock 
for quite a distance. They chose the latter. 
Button and I found it quite easy to keep oppo¬ 
site them, and every time one of us would hook 
a fish we would yell just to see those fellows 
try to hurry. By the time they reached out¬ 
side of the stream our baskets were about full, 
and we were in good spirits and ready to assist 
them in the sport. 
About the first trick Muz performed was to 
walk out in an old boat that had been flooded 
with water, make a long cast, hook a good one, 
lose his footing and land on the broad of his 
back in the soft mud in the bottom of the boat. 
This cooled him off and Pard notified us that 
he was in the game, too. We were just in 
time to see him land two fine ones of about a 
pound and a quarter each at one cast. 
After the day’s catch was counted it tallied 
seventy-five bass, and the lesson we learned 
that day was that the fish are not always in the 
deep water when a stream is cloudy. 
S. D. J. 
Newark Bait and Fly-Casting Club. 
The second club contest for the season’s 
prizes was held on Lake Weequahic, Newark, 
N. J., June 6. The afternoon was perfect, but 
the wind was unfavorable, as it blew across the 
casting course and made accurate work impossi¬ 
ble. 
In the accuracy bait event Jay Marsh was first 
with 97 per cent. Fred T. Mapes won the dis¬ 
tance bait event with an average of 137 2-5 feet, 
and Jay Marsh made the longest single cast, 
163 feet. Perry Frazer won the distance fly 
event with 100 feet. The accuracy fly event is 
not given for the reason that the correctness of 
the scoring was questioned by the judges and 
the score keeper, due to momentary confusion 
of signals. The results: 
accuracy bait, half-ounce. 
GO 
70 
80 
90 
100 
A. J. Marsh 
3 0 2 1 3 2 
L. Darling— 
0 2 5 0 5 4 
F. T. Mapes— 
3 4 3 3 2 7 
P. J. Muldoon— 
1 4 G 4 5 6 
Perrv D. Frazer— 
3 6 1 4 10 7 1 
A. J. Neu— 
2 3 2 3 2 2 
Geo. D. Endersby- 
20 4 5 7 9 2 
T. Doughty— 
7 7 3 6 8 5 
J. G. Jacobus— 
5 8 12 5 2 2 
C. T. Champion— 
10 5 12 S 6 3 
G. Moore— 
9 4 5 4 8 3 
R. Eichlin— 
Dis- Per 
tance. Cent. 
0 
4 
2 
8 
3 
5 
2 
8 
2 
45 
97 
4 
2 
4 
1 
S 
G 
3 
5 
3 
52 
9G.8 
4 
S 
5 
3 
9 
6 
3 
6 
5 
64 
95.11 
7 
4 
6 
5 
0 
7 
5 
7 
4 
71 
95.4 
1 
5 
1 
1 
G 
4 
9 
6 
15 
72 
95.3 
3 
10 
2 
3 
20 
5 
8 
1 
20 
S6 
94.4 
6 
0 
1 
3 
4 
20 
3 
20 
8 
112 
92.8 
1G 
20 
4 
6 
4 
0 
5 
G 
20 
117 
92.3 
3 
6 
G 
8 
G 
20 
20 
S 
7 
118 
92.2 
8 
1 
9 
1 
1 
20 
20 
5 
20 
129 
91.6 
0 
7 
20 
20 
20 
20 
20 
3 
20 
163 
89.2 
20 
20 
20 
10 
14 
20 
12 
20 
15 
198 
8G.12 
DISTANCE BAIT, 
F. T. Mapes .142 
L. S. Darling . 130 
A. J. Marsh.145 
Geo. E. Moore . 118 
P. D. Frazer. 
A. J. Neu . 
J. G. Jacobus . 
Geo. A. Endersby.*50 
D. G. Abercrombie .. 
P. J. Muldoon. 
Chas. T. Champion .. 
John Doughty. 
R. Eichlin . *20 
Feet. 
P. D. Frazer . 100 
I.. S. Darling . 95 
John Doughty . 73 
A. J. Marsh . 70 
F. T. Mapes . 70 
Geo. E. Moore . 65 
Geo. A. Endersby . G5 
P. J. Muldoon . 65 
Chas. T. Champion . 50 
A. J. Neu . 56 
IT, 
iialf-ounce. 
142 
127 
140 
145 
143 
Average. 
137 2-5 
130 
155 
145 
115 
115 
132 
145 
1G3 
*25 
148 
155 
127 1-5 
118 
117 
103 
130 
115 
116 3-5 
153 
150 
140 
*110 
110 2-5 
110 
100 
io3 
105 
125 
10S 3-5 
95 
100 
05 
110 
95 
93 
*50 
*05 
140 
133 
*30 
S5 3-5 
*95 
113 
105 
115 
S5 3-5 
*50 
112 
*85 
85, 
75 
81 2-5 
53 
40 
130 
130 
50 
80 
55 
135 
* 
5G 
56 
56 
*20 
GO 
65 
G5 
70 
56 
d fly-i 
CASTING- 
Distance. 
All the fish lazvs of the United States and Can¬ 
ada revised to date and now in force, are given 
in the Game Lazvs in Brief. See adv. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
