April, 1918 
FOREST AND S T R E A M 
213 
TROUT INSECTS FOR EARLY FLY FISHING 
THOSE IN FLIGHT ALONG THE STREAMS AND RIVERS IN THE EARLY DAYS 
OF SPRING ARE THE ONES TO BE CHOSEN FOR THE LEADER CASTS 
By LOUIS RHEAD 
A T the beginning of the season, the 
ideal day for flyfishing in rivers is 
normal water after a few days’ warm 
spring sunshine, little, or no wind, and 
what there is, to be from the south. Such 
a condition will most always induce a plen¬ 
tiful rise of insects, which, of course, 
tempts fish to feed freely. Upon arrival at 
the stream, the wise angler will have pre¬ 
viously considered the makeup of his flies, 
having ready-made, several casts neatly 
wound in his leaderbox embedded in damp 
felt. The selection suited to both wet and 
dry method, already prepared to adjust to 
the line at any moment he desires, after a 
careful study of the insects then in flight, 
and perhaps trout visibly feeding. 
In the temperate zone of North America 
—that is, from the northern parts of Penn¬ 
sylvania to southern borders of Canada, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific—the month 
of May is, more or less, ideal weather con¬ 
ditions for trout fishing. Aquatic insects, 
fortunately, are much the same all over 
that territory, the time of rise being de¬ 
pendent upon local weather conditions. 
The very earliest insects that appear in 
flight are small, and dark in color—mostly 
upwing drakes, and numerous spinners and 
small dark gnats. 
If the river is quite full, yet clear and 
cold, and you see no fish rising, then fish 
wet, with red bug, brown buzz, and female 
shadfly—the latter, being largest in size, 
should be upper fly, the end fly. If the 
river be low and clear, weather warm, with 
fish visibly rising, use brown drake, fishing 
dry at the surface, making short casts from 
below the rising fish, and wade as near as 
you dare without scaring it. 
If the river is in flood, slightly colored, 
that trout can see your flies, and the day is 
warm and sunshiny, fish wet method. 
Choose the leader having a cowdung, fe¬ 
male shadfly, brown drake as end fly, plac¬ 
ing a very small split shot two inches from 
end fly, casting out to allow the flies to 
float down stream with the flow a hundred 
feet or more. Work them, if possible^ 
along the line of bubbles or rippling run¬ 
ways. After that distance has been run out 
from the reel, rewind slowly, taking care 
you give no chance for the split shot to get 
caught on the bottom. If the flow is swift, 
the flies will run in midwater. 
Later on, when insects are more abun¬ 
dant and varied in size, your choice of flies 
is not so important. But it is very im¬ 
portant you have one, at least, on your 
cast that is an imitation of some insect 
then in flight. You will soon become fa¬ 
miliar with insects, by careful observation, 
and the leader casts, already prepared by 
you, saves time on the stream, most often 
at the very time you see fish rise, and want 
to fish, but cannot till the cast is tied. 
T HE plan I use for May fishing is to 
have three leader fly casts for dry 
fishing, and three for wet fishing al¬ 
ready prepared with the flies I know imi¬ 
tate the insects and about the time they 
rise. The dry fly leaders have one fly each, 
green, brown and mottled drakes. The 
leaders for dry fishing are kept damp be¬ 
tween felt, with each fly so placed to re¬ 
main dry ready for use any time with wet 
gut and fly dry. You cannot cast a single 
dry fly properly with a dry, corkscrew gut, 
it nearly always happens, the trout will 
rise and take your fly at the first cast, or 
not at all. The other set of three leaders 
for wet fishing I tie three flies upon each 
cast, having thus, nine choice flies from 
April and May patterns. 
With the three-fly cast in wet fishing the 
chances are—nine times out of ten, the end 
fly is preferably taken by the trout, if that 
particular insect from which it is copied 
be on the wing at the time. 
I 
S HOULD you make up a cast of yellow 
sally as end fly, alder as middle, brown 
drake as upper, placed so because the 
largest fly—-it often happens—is taken in 
preference to the other two; my experience 
has shown the brown drake and shadfly 
take first rank in getting trout to rise both 
in April and May, no matter what time 
of day or weather conditions if the insects 
are in flight. The brown drake is alike 
popular in lower California, Oregon, Mon¬ 
tana and parts of Canada, known in those 
sections by its old name of March brown. 
(continued on page 245) 
