Trout fly

“ Often the whereabouts of a trend is betrayed by a break or a leap from the surface, and the wide-awake angler will make it his business to toss his fly over the spot sooner or later. Sometimes the trout rush at the lure like a flash, leaping clear over it in their eagerness. ”

“ I caught trout every day in the summer, for a big spring rose within a rod of the house and from it ran a lively brook to the main stream, ten rods away, and even a pin-hook and linen thread would draw them out.
As I grew older I would go with my father to the big eddies and deep holes, where he would lure the largest to his fly and I was only too—too utterly happy when allowed to wade waist deep in the water to carry or float his string of trout toward home. ”

“ In an average season the dry fly man may confidently expect success on suitable water from about the first of May to the last days of the open time. The trout streams are now clear and at or below the normal stage of water; the temperature of the water is rising steadily; the observant fly-fisherman will note the natural ephemeridae abundant at intervals over and on the stream—and there is no sight in nature (at least from the writer's viewpoint and, I fancy, from that of all other trout fly-fishermen) more interesting or more wonderful than a good hatch of duns. ”

“ For trout are brook-wise or river-wise according as they have been reared, and the habits, attitudes and behavior of the one are as different from the other as are those of the boys and girls reared in the country from the city-bred. If one of these river-bred fish breaks from the hook here he does not immediately bore up stream into deep water and disappear beneath a sheltering log, bank or submerged tree-top as one would having a claim on these waters, but heading down-stream, he stays not for brake and he stops not for stone till the river is reached. ”

“ It is well known that no person who regards his reputation will ever kill a trout with anything but a fly. It requires some training on the part of the trout to take to this method. The uncultivated trout in unfrequented waters prefers the bait; and the rural people, whose sole object in going a-fishing appears to be to catch fish, indulge them in their primitive state for the worm. No sportsman, however, will use anything but a fly—except he happens to be alone. ”

“ The very instant you perceive a trout has taken your fly, strike him at the same instant by slightly elevating the wrist. This should be done with the utmost rapidity, or the fish will manage to reject the treacherous imitation that has deceived him, and you will not rise him again for hours afterwards. In fact, I have often seen a good-sized trout that had escaped after having been hooked, not only afterwards invariably refuse the artificial fly, but quit his lair and take to his shelter the moment he perceived the tail line fall on the water. ”

“ Upon the typical wilderness trout stream, where the fish are both very abundant and totally uneducated, dry fly fishing would be in the nature of a farce—although doubtless successful in view of the fact that the wild trout of such a stream will rise to almost anything chucked almost anyhow. But the average American trout stream may now be classed as a civilized stream, and it is upon such waters that the dry fly has proved its worth by succeeding time and again, under certain conditions, when the wet fly has failed. ”

“ In early spring it is useless to be up with the lark, even supposing such a bird exists; no fish will break water till the sun has warmed the air; but in summer, the dawn should blush to find the sportsman napping. In fact, trout will not rise well unless the air is warmer than the water. They do not like to risk taking cold by exposing themselves to a sudden draught.
There is a very absurd impression that trout will not take the fly early in the season ”

“ On fair days and in smooth water, better luck may be expected when the fly is kept upon the surface, and this is easily managed by keeping the tip of the rod well in the air. Often the fisherman can take advantage of a bit of floating foam, and if the fly is cast upon it and allowed to float with it downstream, the ruse will often prove effective.
The trout is a hard striker and it is not unusual to have a trout rush ahead of the fly in his attempt to mouth it. ”

“ By diving after him with the net the assistant would certainly not catch the fish and might tangle one of your other flies. The fish should be led into the net, and the latter kept as still as possible; he knows as well as you do what it is for, and if his attention is drawn to it will dart off as madly as ever.
The trout is admitted to be the most beautiful of all our fish; not so large or powerful as the salmon, he is much more numerous, abounding in all the brooks and rivulets of our Northern States. He lives at our very doors ”

“ On the other hand, the American fly-caster largely enjoys his sport upon the trout streams of the woods or wilderness; erratic rivers with current alternating between swift and slow, broken water and smooth, rapid and waterfall, deep pool and shallow riffle. While insect life is not, of course, absent, one can actually follow [12] such a stream for days without observing the rise of a feeding trout, although, as noted above, sometimes a rising fish will, of course, be seen; but seldom will a sufficient number be observed to warrant the angler's relying exclusively upon casting to the rise. ”

“ Whenever you see a place between trees and bushes where a trout is likely to lie, drop the fly gently, communicating to it a dancing movement. The fly must only just touch the surface, the greatest care being taken that not the smallest morsel of the gut touch the water. This is most essential to success, for rarely indeed will you rise a trout by dibbing if he sees the least bit of gut in the stream.
It very frequently happens that you see a trout lying close to the edge of the stream, or under the shade of a bush. That fish, with care, you may be certain to rise. ”

“ That the rising or non-rising of trout may depend on the scarcity or abundance of the fish. In regions where trout are unusually abundant I have never, in my experience, known them to fail to rise to the artificial fly, at any time of day, or under almost any condition of wind or weather. It is only in sections that are much fished, and fish consequently scarce, or "educated," as some term it for want of a better reason, that trout fail to respond to the solicitations of the fly-fisher. ”

“ There really are now and then cool little nooks which make one envy the trout; and an occasional spring dripping with a fresh rat-tat-tat over rocks and moss and into one’s whiskey in spite of all one can do. This sort of thing is what makes a trout-stream after all. You may catch a whale in a goose-pond but it isn’t angling. To me much depends upon surroundings. I like to form a picturesque part of a picturesque whole. Even when there is no audience in the gallery. ”

“ The necessity of obviating drag, so far as possible, arises from the fact that a shy trout, feeding on the natural ephemeridae, is not apt to rise to the imitation—however good—which [83] comes over it in an unusual way. A feeding trout, possibly rising from a fixed vantage point wherefrom it can easily see and capture the duns floating down on the surface within striking distance, will, as a rule, rise only to the artificial fly which floats in an exactly similar manner to that of the natural flies which come within its vision. ”

“ Excluding, then, bottom-feeding or tailing fish, also fish feeding upon nymphs either in mid-water or, as noted, practically upon the surface, the trout feed upon the Ephemeridae first as duns and subsequently when, as spinners, the female floats on the surface when voiding her eggs, and upon both males and females when spent. Before casting to a rising trout the angler should, as far as may be, determine the nature of the rise and the fly to which it was made. The question of the right fly having been decided, it remains only for the angler to put the fly over the fish in the right way. ”

“ Its motives are different: it now seeks not food, but safety, and this it finds first by diving, and then by propelling itself by its wings under water in some direction which you cannot possibly divine; for it by no means follows that it will pursue the course to which its bill pointed when it went down. It can alter its line of flight beneath the water as readily as a swallow can change its course of flight through the air. But wherever it may reappear, its stay is now instantaneous; a trout rising at a fly is not more expeditious. You may even fail to detect it at all. ”

“ As the dry fly man works upstream and the trout habitually lie facing the current, the careful and quiet angler seldom needs to cast a long line—provided, of course, he is casting practically straight up and actually stalking the fish from behind. But when casting diagonally up and across from either bank, in which manner it may happen that a great deal of the water may be most advantageously worked, the familiar fact that "keeping out of sight" is half the battle in trout-fishing must never be forgotten. ”

“ The trout are all floundering about, ready to take your fly the moment it touches the water. This only lasts for a short time, as they all leave the pool at the receding of the tide. I say nothing of sea-trout or salmon flies, which vary so much in the different lochs, rivers, and streams, that every angler should be able to dress them for himself. Any fishing-tackle maker will be happy to teach him for a consideration. He has then only to learn from an approved hand near, what flies are best for the loch or stream he intends to fish, and tie them accordingly. ”

“ In streams, especially, trout usually rise an instant after the flies touch the water, and I believe that trout in streams commonly wait for their food to come to them, and do not often dart out from where they are lying to any great distance, but wait until the fly comes nearly or quite over them, and then rise to the surface and take the fly with a snap and instantly turn head down to regain the position they had left. ”

“ When you observe a trout rise at a fly, throw your fly about a foot above where you judge his head to lie, and a little to the left or right of him. If he does not rise at your first cast, throw again three or four times. He will not take your fly unless it be presented to him temptingly, and near to him. He will not quit his post for your fly if it be out of his feeding circuit; and a few casts may bring it into that desirable locality. Trout always lie with their heads looking up the stream, watching for what it may bring them ”

“ As they grow older they separate, and each one chooses his own particular hiding-place, the larger trout taking the deepest holes and largest projections and leaving the smaller relations to shift for themselves. The older they grow the wiser and more wary they become, hence the necessity of considerable skill to land a wary old trout. Angle-worms are considered the best bait for trout, but in the spring, after the usual freshets, which wash vast numbers of worms and insects into the water, they bite better at the more tempting bait of a fly. ”

“ The best trout rivers of Canada are troublesome to reach, difficult to ascend, and seldom attempted by any but the salmon fisher. To the latter, the trout, attractive as he seems to us, is a trial and a nuisance. Abundant and voracious, he often rushes in advance of the lordly salmon, seizes the fly, and then discovering his mistake, by his struggles disturbs the pool, ruffles the fisherman’s temper, and frightens the larger game from its equanimity. ”

“ Let the trout run and struggle until the strain of the rod tires him out so that he can be easily drawn within reach and lifted out with the landing-net.
So you see that in fly-fishing for trout you learn a very fascinating art, which can be practiced among the most delightful of outdoor surroundings in the pleasantest months of the year. You will learn much more than books can tell you about the habits and curious ways of a fish which the most experienced anglers have considered for hundreds of years as, next to the salmon, their most worthy game. ”

“ In considering the merits and demerits of dry-fly fishing, one cannot be altogether blind to the fact that down-stream fishing must inevitably prick and therefore educate many more fish than the floating fly. This being so, it is still more inexplicable that in former days, in chalk-stream waters, our forerunners were able to account for far heavier baskets of trout than we are, despite the heavy restocking our streams now receive, to their great advantage; and we necessarily come back to the old point, what can we do to secure an adequacy of free-rising fish? ”

“ The Trout is a game and sportive fish, and affords much amusement to the fly-fishers, as well as being generally esteemed the best of our fresh-water fishes for the table. The spawning time of the trout is much the same as that of the salmon, about October and November, and their haunts very similar; they fix upon some gravelly bottom to deposit their spawn, in either river or lake, and are never good when big with roe. After they have spawned they become lean and wasted, and their beautiful spots disappear ”

“ The smaller trout of wild rapid streams, who take the fly so much more readily, rush madly for safety the moment you show yourself upon the bank above a pool. But the big chalk-stream trout, so much more wary of the deadly fly, is comparatively indifferent to the mere spectator. Possibly the superior education that has quickened his perception in the matter of artificial flies and their method of presentation has also taught him that in them alone danger lurks, and in mere man as such there is none whatever. ”