Playing and Netting Big Trout on the Fly 
ANY expert fishermen often 
M frankly confess it to be a com- 
mon experience to have their 
big fish get away after being impaled 
on a fly. It is also a common occur- 
rence for amateurs and boys, after con- 
siderable bungling to succeed in land- 
ing large trout. These contradictory 
conditions are mainly due to carelessly 
tied, or imperfect tackle—in the latter 
instance, to coarse tackle and sheer luck 
of a firm hook-hold. Innumerable are 
the curious situations to be 
found in trout fishing, the 
varied obstacles—the wide 
range of lucky or unlucky 
accidents that obtain— 
winding in and out of the 
trying period between the 
strike of the fish and its 
entry into the fernlined 
creel. The excitement, 
and the anxiety grown ac- 
cording to the size of the 
fish. 
I know of one angler, 
waist-deep in the river, 
hooked to an unusually 
large trout for four hours 
—two after dark, yet still 
called for assistance to 
land the fish which could 
have been netted in twenty 
minutes by an expert, be- 
cause the fly-hook pierced 
through the entire bony 
tongue of the fish—impos- 
sible to escape, except by 
reason of imperfect tackle. 
In English chalk-streams 
the greatest difficulty to 
overcome in landing trout 
is caused by thick weeds. 
In American streams the 
WE. 
Ly, 
' whain difficulty arises from 
Species of trout being played. 
the line being cut on rocks, and the 
right and wrong curb, or control of 
fish in swift water. Another question 
—also a difference, is regarding 
whether to strike or not to strike just 
as the fly is taken. To answer the 
question, much depends upon the 
It were 
foolish indeed to strike hard any spe- 
cies of large size trout. 
POP OPERLY to play a speckled east- 
ern brook trout weighing up to a 
couple of pounds, the hand and fore- 
' arm should be slightly raised or rather 
sharply raised with the object of fixing 
the barb more firmly in its mouth. The 
forearm rise, however, must be gradu- 
ally decreased as the size of the fish 
By LOUIS RHEAD 
increases—and still more, according to 
the roughness and strength of water 
flow. 
Brook trout from ten to fourteen 
inches take the fly with a decided dash, 
darting back to the river-bed with great 
rapidity, and unless the strike is quick, 
though delicate, they often eject the 
fly. 
The brown trout will take the fly in 
various ways, according to its size, the 
food it takes, and the situation where 
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In pussy-willow time 
found. Its action is most savage when 
insects are at the apex of their abund- 
ance, and the ‘trout about sixteen 
inches long. Such a condition requires 
no strike from the angler, who must 
instantly raise the rod tip and play the 
fish directly from the reel with click 
only as a restraint on the fish in every 
condition of water. The same action 
must be pursued with rainbows of any 
size, the larger the fish, the more rapid 
must the tip rise, for the slightest check 
on the freedom of the click spells dis- 
aster in loss of the fish. 
With brown trout over sixteen inches 
up to six or eight pounds, it is their 
habit, when they do take flies, to raise 
their heads leisurely to the surface and 
suck in the fly, then quietly turning, go 
AT willy 
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back down with the fly in the mouth. 
O strike quickly in this instance 
would be either to pull the fly away 
before getting a good hold, or ‘if the 
fly is merely in the mouth, just to 
scratch and scare the fish from an- 
other rise. The right thing to do is to 
wait awhile for the line to tighten— 
no doubt an anxious moment for the 
angler, but the pause is more safe for 
the heavy fish to embed the hook by its 
own action, rather than a 
too rapid strike by the 
angler. Sometimes very 
large brown trout make a 
plunge, striking at the 
fly to make the reel sing 
loudly, in that case, be 
sure to let all the force of 
striking go directly on the 
line and click of the reel 
without raising the rodtip, 
there is time for that when 
the fish is fairly hooked 
and on the run. 
At the strike of the 
rainbow, the _ cut-throat 
and other very active spe- 
cies of trout, it should be 
the angler’s constant care 
never to strike and al- 
ways to have the line free, 
as the check of a good rod- 
click is sufficient restraint 
to embed the hook. 
The precise degree of 
force in striking fish of 
any size is as difficult to 
determine as the proper 
moment when to strike. 
Too great a force will of- 
ten produce a smash and 
getaway. The nervous, ex- 
cited angler is prone to 
use excessive, sudden force in his 
strike, when little—or none is required. 
When the fish is properly hooked, 
starting off down or up stream-most 
often the latter, your first duty is to 
obtain a proper command of it by get- 
ting the rodtip well-uwp, such a _ posi- 
tion being technically called by British 
Anglers butting a fish. 
HEN a fish is large, the bent 
curve is a severe strain on the 
rod, and it should be watched carefully 
and relieved—if required, especially 
when the fish jiggers, or flounders 
heavily in deep water, which is a su- 
preme test of a rod to show its worth 
and strength of backbone. 
(Continued on page 248) 
