said. “Now, Sperry is good, but I got 
hold of him a little too late. While I 
taught him a good bit, his form was 
spoiled before I took hold of him.” 
Later in the day, Sperry had privately 
confided in me that he was glad I did 
not know anything about casting, be- 
cause it was always easier to be a good 
rodsman if one was started right, and 
he pointed to Gray as a fair specimen 
of his tutorship. In a very off-handed 
fashion, he informed me that he had 
taught Gray all that he knows about 
fishing. 
ITH this as a background, the 
mystery of the display spread on 
the table that night was even more 
profound. Each man must have had 
vat least fifty different kinds of lures. 
I will not attempt to describe this bait. 
\The fisherman who reads this has seen 
ithe layout so often, this is of little in- 
terest, and if you are not a fisherman, 
sand have never had the delirium tre- 
‘mens, you could never visualize the 
scene, regardless of any description of 
‘mine. For the want of a better name, 
‘this favorite pastime is called “fly fish- 
jing,” and these supposed baits are 
icalled flies, for the simple reason that 
‘they are not flies. They bear no re- 
semblance to anything that any man 
‘or fish ever saw before. A very simple 
one is made in this wise. You take 
one feather from the thigh of a one- 


year-old Plymouth Rock hen; another 
feather from the left hind leg of a 
pidy goose; then go out into the sun- 
room where the canary bird is molting 
and pick up three sickly-looking yellow- 
ish feathers; next you take a stick, one 
inch long, and about one-half the thick- 
ness of a lead pencil; carve this stick 
to look exactly like a cross between a 
katy-did and an angle worm; then you 
take a piece of red string and a fish- 
hook; artfully drape the feathers about 
the wood carving, concealing the hook 
among the feathers, so that anybody 
and anything but a blind fish can see 
it, then bind tightly together with 
string. If the lure is to be used in the 
morning instead of the afternoon, a 
blue string should be used; if the 
fishing is to be done south of the 
Mason and Dixon line, you take Do- 
minican feathers instead of Plymouth 
Rock. One must always be careful to 
make this geographical distinction! 
Y far the weirdest type of lure is 
what is known as “heavy bait.” 
These baits are supposed to represent 
minnows, crawfish, clams, frogs, etc. 
They look like a Cubist’s conception of 
the original. The fish are supposed to 
be fooled into believing these are real 
and try to swallow them. I don’t be- 
lieve this theory is correct. I believe 
that any self-respecting fish looks at 
these things either as a joke or an 
i an hal 

insult. If they are insulted, they show 
it by striking. As a rule, however, the 
average game fish has a fairly well- 
developed sense of humor. 
On the first evening I sat in silence. 
I did not know how to ask an intelligent 
question. At least I feared that any 
question that may have occurred to me 
would not have been intelligent to these 
expert fishermen. 
(> our way down the first day, Gray 
had a slight» automobile accident, 
which put one of his hands out of com- 
mission temporarily, and he did not try 
to fish when we went out the second 
day of the trip. Sperry and Dinty took 
to Big Creek, as pretty a stream as 
can be found anywhere. Sperry used 
his casting-rod, Dinty his bait-casting 
apparatus; at the end of the day, it 
was unanimously concluded that all of 
the fish had gone to the larger streams. 
The third day Gray’s hand was still 
sore, and he fished very little. The 
other two, however, worked indus- 
triously, but evening found them sort- 
ing their lures in an effort to discover 
what would tempt the finny tribe—they 
had had no results thus far. 
Gray was confident he could show 
them how to catch fish, and did not 
hesitate to say so. He was eager for 
the try on the fourth day out. He and 
I took the boat and his form was per- 
fect. It had been unanimously agreed 
The intriguing rings in the center of the photo indicate that a lusty bass has just risen to take nourishment—however, 
this manifestation is not always of value to the angler. 
523 
