March, 1923 
117 
smaller ones are preferred. How, then, 
shall we account for the taking qualities 
of hackle flies, black, brown, red. or 
grey, supposed to resemble this phase of 
the insect? Evidently only on the 
ground that to the trout these flies rep¬ 
resent some other insect, perhaps the 
larvae stage, as a completely drenched 
hackle would have the damp fibers thor¬ 
oughly plastered to the body. 
F EW of the trout under observation 
took May flies, or drakes, large or 
small, though the smaller had the pref¬ 
erence. Is this merely a freak or a co¬ 
incidence ? The 
tastes of trout are 
supposed to vary 
with age and size. 
At least the state¬ 
ment has been 
made that small 
brown trout d o 
not eat minnows, 
while the larger 
ones make them a 
principal article of 
diet. I tried this 
out one summer 
on a small brook 
trout. Several 
minnows m u c h 
smaller than the 
trout were put in 
the pail of a speci¬ 
men that had been 
i n captivity f o r 
several days and 
was feeding well. 
All the minnows 
were killed but 
none was eaten. 
Another specimen ate several minnows 
but refused to take others subsequently. 
On lakes which I have fished and in 
which were caught brook trout up to 
seven or eight pounds I have often no¬ 
ticed large upwing flies sailing along un¬ 
touched, while the broken-off wings of 
large, furry, light-brown or greyish 
moths, floating on the surface were 
plain evidence of what large brook 
trout had fed on either during the night 
or early in the morning. The artificial 
May flics of various sorts are considered 
one of the main stand-bys of the dry-fly 
man, and in England brown trout are 
taken on living specimens of the species. 
Personally I have been more successful 
when using small artificials, drakes, 12, 
14 or 16 hook. 
Sometimes they fail lamentably. I 
recall on one occasion casting for 
twenty minutes to a large trout. I 
could plainly see it and judged it to be 
about sixteen inches long. It would not 
take any wing-fly I offered but came up 
at the first cast of a fuzzy, red squirrel- 
tail specimen. 
In the case of the artificial drake, may 
not the wings, in their parachute shape, 
really suggest some kind of moth rather 
than the fly they are intended to repre¬ 
sent? There are moths which have out¬ 
spread, wings of a netted appearance. 
The trout may possibly mistake the ar¬ 
tificial drakes for these insects, es¬ 
pecially as the artificials are tied with 
wings which do not stand vertically, as 
in the naturals. 
All my trout took mosquitoes eagerly, 
the soft body evidently being considered 
a juicy morsel. This insect is so fragile 
in appearance that an accurate copy of 
it would be very difficult to make. It 
would have to be dressed very thin in 
wings, legs and body and be tied on a 
small hook, about a No. 16. Then it 
should prove successful—if any judg¬ 
ment may be formed from my ex¬ 
periments. 
N 1 
When the angler has made the proper guess he is often rewarded by a double 
Of equal estimation with angle worms, 
most small, mealy-winged insects were 
ravenously taken by the trout under my 
observation. These insects ranged from 
a quarter to half an inch or even up to 
three-quarters in length. They varied in 
color from a dirty white or cream 
through various shades of light brown. 
Some were white with dots of black or 
brown arranged in circular fashion 
across the wings. With some, when at 
rest, the wings were close to the sides. 
In other specimens the general wing- 
shape, seen from above, was triangular. 
Those with darker or spotted wings 
were perhaps not so well liked as those 
of lighter color. Yet many of our suc¬ 
cessful flies, the Professor, Grizzly King, 
Queen of the Water, etc., are tied with 
feathers to imitate just such insects. It 
may be noted that perhaps the most 
popular fly, the Coachman, has a white 
wing. However, when wet, the feather 
has a different appearance, and this may 
also be true when it is seen by the fish 
through a different medium, the water. 
Small, black insects, with pulpy bodies 
and soft wings and legs, were also quite 
freely taken. Many of these were so 
small, like the “smuts” or “curses” of 
the British angler, that an artificial re¬ 
production would be practically an im¬ 
possibility. The largest would not re¬ 
quire a hook larger than a No. 14. The 
wings for the most part were quite in¬ 
conspicuous, and the artificial should 
have the hackle more in evidence than 
the wings, which should be just enough 
to make the fly “cock” as it falls upon 
the water. 
In the floating fly, properly placed, I 
doubt if the fish sees very distinctly 
much of the part of the fly that is out 
of the water, at least when a breeze is 
blowing. So those parts of the natural, 
the underside, should be imitated in the 
artificial which are most conspicuous to 
the fish. 
ONE of my 
trout had 
any desire for 
ants, wingless or 
winged. Some of 
the fish would 
barely notice the 
insect as it fell 
upon the water. 
Others would 
seize it but eject it 
after chewing 
once or twice. 
Spiders of cer¬ 
tain sizes and 
kinds were readily 
taken. They were 
mostly quite small 
in size and brown 
or light grey in 
color. “Daddy- 
long-legs” were 
not taken at all, 
even if they fell 
into the water by 
chance. I would 
sometimes find the 
drowned spider of this species in the 
water, apparently untouched by the fish. 
I have learned, on the testimony of a 
reputable British angler, that this kind 
of spider is so readily taken by brown 
trout in England as to constitute it one 
of the standard baits. 
“Spiders,” as they are called in Eng¬ 
land, that is, artificials tied with a slim 
or plump body and with two or three 
turns only of the hackle at the head, 
make a very effective lure—a circum¬ 
stance I can readily understand from the 
attitude of my trout toward the naturals. 
The long-legged, rather fragile in¬ 
sects, known as spinners, did not seem 
to be very attractive to any of my fish. 
They were often seized but rarely swal¬ 
lowed, usually being promptly ejected 
after two or three mastications. If trout 
do not possess the sense of taste, as 
some aver, upon what sense do they de¬ 
pend to discriminate, while they are still 
in the mouth, between mosquitoes and 
small spinners ? To my touch, the mos¬ 
quito is soft and pulpy, while the spin¬ 
ner has a harder, more wiry feeling. 
Various kinds of artificials, known as 
“spinners,” seem to be successful in 
getting rises from trout. Perhaps, many 
times, it is only necessary that the fish 
barely seize the lure in order that a 
skillful angler set the hook. 
A fish must have some sense by which 
(Continued on page 141) 
