June, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
347 
“The Complete Science of Fly Fishing 
and Spinning,’’ by F. G. Shaw, contains the 
best written description of how to cast a 
fly, but as I before remarked, a few min¬ 
utes of actual instruction will accomplish 
more than hours of study. 
Having arrived at a point where the be¬ 
ginner considers himself fairly competent 
to cast a fly accurately and to a fair dis¬ 
tance and wishing to put his skill to the 
final test we will proceed to the waterside. 
The ideal dry fly water would consist of 
a moderately paced stream with plenty of 
good deep reaches with occasional shal¬ 
lower stretches where the stream is faster 
and runs over a clear gravelly bottom. 
There should be plenty of natural feed for 
the trout and no predatory fish to prey on 
the trout. 
Before commencing to fish the reel line 
must be rubbed down with red deer fat. 
This substance makes the line float, and 
without treating the line in this manner it 
is almost impossible to practice the art ; 
because if the reel line should sink during 
the fishing of a cast, when the line is re¬ 
covered preparatory to another cast, the 
fly which presumably has been floating, is 
dragged down into the water and very 
thoroughly drenched, and it will take many 
more false casts to dry the fly again. 
Furthermore, a much longer line can be 
handled if it floats on top than if it sinks 
into the water. 
Select the nearest artificial imitation of 
the fly that the trout are feeding on and 
having tied it on to the fine end of the 
leader anoint the fly with paraffine. There 
are various methods of doing this. There 
is a small bottle with a little camel’s hair 
brush, there are various types of small 
atomizers, but the device I use consists 
of a small metal box with a pad of soft 
felt thoroughly impregnated with paraffine. 
The box is opened and the fly is pressed 
down on the pad and it becomes thorough¬ 
ly oiled. 
Now make several false casts in the air 
to drive off the surplus oil and move slowly 
towards the bank of the river, keeping out 
of sight of the fish as much as possible. 
P RACTICALLY all dry fly fishing is up 
stream fishing; there are times, how¬ 
ever, when the only way to catch a 
fish is to cast down stream, so when you 
come within sight of the water if you should 
happen to see a good trout rising just below 
where you are standing, withdraw and, 
making a circuit, approach the stream again 
well below the feeding fish. 
Study the nature of the various surface 
currents and try to figure out just where 
your fly must fall on the water in order to 
float over the rising trout. It may be that 
the stream is flowing evenly with no side 
eddies to deflect the course of your fly; 
therefore all that will be necessary will be 
to cast the fly two or three feet directly 
above the spot where the fish is feeding 
and let it float down over him. The first 
cast over a rising fish is the one most 
likely to produce a rise. If the fish does 
not rise at the first cast the chances of 
getting that fish decrease in geometrical 
progression with each succeeding cast; 
therefore the first cast must be as nearly 
perfect as is possible. 
If the distance to be cast seems almost 
up to your limit of long distance casting, 
try to get a little closer to the fish by 
kneeling down and crawling towards the 
fish. Then let out nearly sufficient line to 
reach the spot where you want your fly 
to fall on the water and make a prelimi¬ 
nary false cast in the air over the fish and 
see if you have enough line out; if not let 
out enough line to reach the place and 
make another false east. Sometimes on 
very heavily fished waters it is advisable 
to make these preliminary casts a little to 
the side of the fish, so as not to scare him. 
(continued on page 370) 
THE ETERNAL QUERY-HOW BIG IS A TROUT 
MOST ANGLERS ARE WILLING TO BELIEVE THAT THERE IS NO LIMIT 
TO THE LENGTH OR WEIGHT OR BREADTH OF BEAM OF FONTINALIS 
J UST as an over-ruling Providence made 
little apples in contrast to big ones, so it 
holds true in the law of Creation that 
there are big trout quite as much as small 
trout. With the little ones this article has 
not to deal. They are common—too com¬ 
mon to suit the average angling enthusiast. 
But in taking up consideration of the record 
breaker—the duly authenticated giant of his 
species—we enter a realm of pleasant con¬ 
jecture, possibilities, hopes and ambitions 
that will ever hold the attention of the tribe 
piscatorial and more particularly of those 
cheerful fictionists who would have us be¬ 
lieve, as we are only too willing to believe, 
that there is no limit to the length or 
weight or breadth of beam of Fontinalis— 
that the largest of the species is yet to be 
caught and ours may be the honor. 
That is what we are forced, willy nilly, 
to think. Imagine the drab and cheerless 
future facing the angler if he knew of a 
certainty that he never would catch the 
biggest trout for the simple reason that it 
had been landed already. It would be like 
telling the small boy in school that he had 
no chance of becoming President or a Matty 
or a Charles Chaplin or any of the other 
great or heroic figures to which juvenile 
ambition inclines. 
Dr. Briggs, of the United Anglers’ 
League-—he has achieved fame in profes¬ 
sional directions, but we are considering 
him now as a fisherman—has the right idea. 
“If you have a good fish story,” says this 
optimist, “keep on telling it, even though 
other people won’t believe it, for it may 
come true.” 
There speaks the spirit of the real angler, 
Somewhere the biggest trout 
still swims 
illustrating the ties—or lies—that bind to¬ 
gether the best fraternity on earth. But 
in this article we will not indulge in fiction. 
It is the purpose rather to set forth a series 
of duly authenticated records showing that 
enormous square tail trout have been caught 
—larger even than claimed by some gen¬ 
tlemen whose assertions have been relegated 
to the “may come true” classification. 
Now, the two sections of this continent 
to which we must turn when gathering ma¬ 
terial dealing with big trout are the Range- 
ley Lakes in Maine and the Nepigon dis¬ 
trict in Canada. Other localities may claim 
distinction, but the two named have been 
consistently in the lead, and take prece¬ 
dence over all other places. 
A ND how can the scattered material, the 
widely separated records, covering the 
taking of monster trout be brought 
into orderly sequence? Simply, dear reader, 
by going patiently through the back files of 
the paper you are holding in your hand. 
Forest and Stream for nearly fifty years 
has been a repository of these facts, has 
verified the most of them and accurate¬ 
ly classified them. It is claimed that this 
paper has recorded the capture of every 
nine pound trout, if the story or the trout 
reached civilization, in that period. 
But we must disclaim credit for the in¬ 
dustry, the enthusiasm, that prompted that 
search. The honor belongs to an able sci¬ 
entist, Dr. William Converse Kendall, of 
the United States Bureau of Fisheries, who 
in “The Fishes of New England,” one of the 
Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural 
History, gathered data from Forest and 
