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Fly-Fishing Days With Tom. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I had passed through the several evolutionary 
stages which most healthy boys experience in 
their angling progress, beginning with catching 
shiners, using a willow switch for rod and linen 
thread for line. This was followed by sitting on 
a stump near the shore and catching little rock 
bass from underneath it by carefully dropping 
a hook baited with wriggling worm down 
through an opening in the stump roots. 
Then came the Mississippi cane pole stage, 
which was the medium of transfering many 
bullheads and suckers from their element by a 
semi-circular route to the shore or sometimes 
to a treetop. 
The next was the throw-line stage with the 
nut of an old railroad bolt for a sinker: and 
what fun to feel that wriggle, as the luckless 
redhorse or sucker was hauled in hand over 
hand! 
My recollection is that this was followed by 
the acquisition of a Calcutta cane jointed pole 
and a brass reel. Some good fellow showed 
me how to make guides from brass wire and at- 
tach them with linen thread, and with this out- 
fit, aided by a spoon hook or live minnow, an 
occasional pickerel or bass was taken. 
And then came a lancewood fly-rod and of 
course there must be a leader and some gaudy 
bass flies; but after trying them by standing on 
the apron of the dam and letting them drift 
with the current without success, I came to the 
conclusion that fly-fishing was a poor game 
anyhow, so I gave it up and my fly-rod came 
to be used for bait fishing. 
About this time there was a lull in my fishing, 
as it became necessary for me to establish a 
“world reputation,” and to do this I went to 
the city and found an employer who really did 
not appreciate me, and after a couple of years 
in his ungrateful service, “the call of the wild” 
early .in the spring took me back to my home 
and more fishing. 
That spring Tom and I became friends. Tom 
was a canny Scot of about fifty summers. I 
was twenty, but little disparities of from ten to 
fifty years, I have found, make small difference 
in matters of friendship, so long as tastes are 
congenial, and we were both fond of fishing. 
Tom had fished in many climes. He was par- 
ticularly fond of fiy-fishing and willing to act 
as my preceptor. I went the man from Mis- 
souri one better, for I was not only willing, but 
happy to be shown. Did I have a fly-rod? 
Yes, but Tom thought it was rather slimpsy, so 
be proceeded to do a little pruning by cutting 
about three inches from the extreme top and 
the same amount or a little less from the small 
end of the middle joint. After carefully reset- 
ting the ferrules and lining the whole rod up, so 
that it was true and straight, he decided that 
it would do to begin with, and it certainly did 
have more backbone. 
My old reel was a brass, double multiplier, 
and we made it answer, but my preceptor used 
one quite a good deal larger in diameter. I 
should say, it was about three inches, of the 
single-action style, with click. It Was quite 
narrow between the outside plates, not over an 
inch and arranged about three-quarters of an 
inch from the axle were pieces of wire which 
had been inserted by drilling through the spool 
from side to side and the ends soldered to hold 
them in position. The line was wound on the 
frame formed by these wires, and the first turn 
of the crank took up about 3% inches of line 
instead of 34 of an inch, which the axle would 
have taken. On the crank end of the reel was a 
little band on the edge of a plate about 1-16 
of an inch wide, which prevented the line from 
fouling crank or handle as it was drawn from the 


cast. 
In Tom’s judgment my line was all right for 
some purposes; it would do to dub around in 
bait fishing or tie up packages with, but for 
fly-fishing, never. I must have a line of heavy 
oiled or enameled silk that would lie out 
straight, even if there happened to be a wind 
that would carry a soft, light line out of its 
course. But the price of an enameled line sort 
of took me off my feet, as cash didn’t happen to 
be one of my heaviest assets. However, my 
new-found friend came to the rescue to help 
me out of my difficulties, as he did many times 
on our fishing trips together, and I came to 
have great faith in his resourcefulness and a 
love for his kindly and generous nature, al- 
though he appeared a litile gruff until one came 
to understand him. One of his last year’s lines, 
about fifty feet long, which he spliced to about 
the same length of linen, answered very nicely 
for that first season. He remarked as I wound 
the line on my old reel, that when I got so I 
could lay out that first fifty feet well, that I 
could shift for myself, as it seldom happened in 
actual fishing that one needed to cast further; 
besides, it was difficult to strike a fish on a long 
line. 
Now we were ready to try our first cast, so 
one evening after supper we went to the river 
and I proceeded to joint my rod and thread 
the line through the rings. Tom sat quietly by 
smoking his old dudeen, and when I arrived at 
that feverish stage where the first cast must be 
made, he asked quietly how long I had used a 
jointed rod. My reply was five or six years, 
which brought out, “It’s high time you learned 
to put one together,” and he proceeded to show 
me after I had reeled up my line and unjointed 
the rod. He took the tip first and placed it in 
the joint, pushing it away from him, then placed 
the joint in the butt and in this way kept the 
whole rod off the ground. My procedure had 
been directly opposite. He then proceeded to 
thread the line through the guides as far as he 
could without resting the rod on the ground, and 
then rested the butt only long enough to finish the 
job, explaining that the safest place for a rod 
was in one’s hand, as some one was liable to 
walk on it if it was on the ground—and that 
a rod was seldom broken in actual fishing, but 
very often accidentally by being stepped on. 
Tom also explained the necessity of handling 
a good enameled line with great care to pre- 
vent kinks, which caused the enamel to crack, 
making the line more liable to rot from being 
soaked and beside destroying to a considerable 
extent its casting efficiency. 
I began to believe there was a good deal to 
this fly fishing game, and my patience was be- 
ing cultivated. Before the first cast was made 
he pulled a green twig from a willow about the 
thickness of a lead pencil and ten inches long 
and then picked up a little pebble which he held 
between the index finger and thumb of his left 
hand. Placing the end of the twig back of the 
pebble and pulling against it with the twig held 
in the other hand until it bowed, then releasing 
the pebble, it was propelled by the spring of the 
twig about thirty feet forward. “Now, my boy, 
that’s just what you want to make your rod do 
to that line. That’s one of two reasons why 
it is made springy,” and then he showed me 
how to develop that spring. Stepping down to 
the water with his left foot forward, the rod in 
his right hand with reel on under side near 
the extreme butt, his hand firmly grasping the 
handle with thumb forward and directly on top, 
he drew from the reel with the left hand as 
much line as he could by one pull, at the same 
time giving the point of the rod a sharp yank 
upward and backward to a little beyond the 
perpendicular. This caused the line to 

reel by the left hand in lengthening line for a 

straighten out behind him, well up in the air. 
It was then propelled forward with a sharp 
twitch of the rod, and these movements were 
continued until the line fell lightly on the water 
about forty feet from where he stood. He had 
called my attention to the fact that it was not 
necessary to use much muscle, and that the 
work was done mostly with the forearm and 
wrist, the upper part of the arm being kept 
close to the body. 
Now he turned the rod over to me, and after 
several evenings’ practice, I was laying out 
about forty feet of line fairly well. Tom 
found it necessary very often to tell me not to 
drop my rod too far behind, as in this way 
control of the line was lost; also in making the 
back cast the rod must be brought to a sharp 
stop at or very soon after it reached the per- 
pendicular, so that the spring was well de- 
veloped, causing the line to be sharply pro- 
pelled backward. The thumb acts as a stop in 
making the back cast and as soon as the line 
has reached the limit of its backward course— 
which one soon learns by the slight pull on the 
sensitive tip—the rod must be brought sharply 
forward. 
The forward cast is largely a repetition of the 
back cast, except that the rod is carried for- 
ward and down, so that when the line 
straightens the rod is about parallel with the 
water. I also learned that if too much force 
was used the end of the line, or more particu- 
larly a cast of flies, would snap back and fall 
awkwardly on the water. Tom had a way of 
overcoming this last difficulty by holding a couple 
of feet of line in his left hand, and when the 
forward cast had about reached its limit, he 
would release the loose line and the flies would 
settle down easily on the water. 
Then came some very pleasant days in fishing 
with my good friend and preceptor. He al- 
ways made his own flies and leaders and had 
presented me with a supply of flies and a couple 
of single leaders about seven feet long arranged 
with loops for two flies. 
Our fishing was for small-mouth black bass, 
and Tom used rather small flies, generally not 
larger than No. 4, and they were tied on 
turned-down eyed hooks. Flies tied on these 
hooks, I have found after a good deal of ex- 
perience, are much more satisfactory than those 
tied with snells whipped on the tapered hook 
in the old-style way. The snells may be re- 
newed, and if a fly is well made, the gut, after 
it becomes worn at the eye, may be cut off and 
re-tied several times before the fly is worn out. 
It is exceedingly aggravating to find, too late 
perhaps by the loss of a good fish, that your 
flies are not to be depended on. You knew of 
course that some of them had been in your fly- 
book for a long time, but you didn’t realize that 
the gut had deteriorated so much with age. 
With flies tied on eyed hooks this trouble is 
entirely obviated, and no matter how old they 
are, if one buys a few strands of fresh gut each 
season and uses it in attaching flies to leaders, 
he can depend upon them. 
In tishing for small-mouth bass it may be de- 
sirable at times to use flies made on larger 
hooks than No. 4, but generally they wih 
answer. When the water is high or roily, No. 
2 or even o flies may be a little more at- 
tractive. 
Tom used a single leader and never more 
than:two flies, because on account of the many 
weeds and snags in the stream we fished sey- 
eral good fish had been lost by one of the 
hooks becoming snagged while playing them 
Our best work was generally done in the even- 
ing, and then only a single fly was used, and in 
this way much annoyance from tangled leaders 
in the dark was avoided. On our first trip to- 
gether my good friend called my attention to 


