The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-05-14

some days before they start for their
| fishing resort they have boys out In all
directions digging fish worms for them.
There are no earthworms where they
so, and they rarely take less than q
barrelful of these worms along, snugly
stored in their native earth. These
fishermen say they have better success
with black bass with angleworms in
I the waters near which they camp than
with any other bait they have used,
Ever so enthusiastic an expert, par
tial to the fly, as my friend, Colonel A.
N. Cheney, New York State Fish Gull
turist, says that bait fishing is not to
be sneered at, and his ideas of how bait
F., should be used in trout fishing are
worth knowing, for have tried them
and know they can't be improved on"
Take your angleworm or earth
worm says Colonel Cheney after it Is
| secured in damp moss, and pass your
hook through the neck half an inch
from the head. Then gather up a loop
| of the body and pass the hook through
again and again, until you have the
shank as well as the beard of the hook
| we'll covered, with half an inch of free
worm over. Should your worm loop or
the head or tail of the worm be taken
off by fish, put on fresh bait Fish
! down stream.
IF you use live minnows, pass your
hook through the minnow's back, I'M
der the dorsal fin, but not so low as to
break the backbone. Should you use
only a portion of minnow, cut off the
| tail inst a "a fin M
hook in at the tail and along the back
! bone until the point of the hook nearly
| reaches the place cut Your bait will
then be curved to correspond with the
| bend of the hook. and will whrl nicely
when drawn against the current
There are holes in streams where 1t
would be folly to attempt to cast q fly.
| If person wishes to pass them by be-
cause he never fishes with other than
| fly, all right. Some one not so fastidi-
Gus may come after and bring to bas-
ket some of the Oldest inhabitants Of
the brook.
And you can bet your life he will.
81 remember seeing pretentious and
| costly oil painting in the window of
| swell Broadway store two or three
| years ago, which represented brook
| trout in the act of selling an anglers
| fly. The picture was the work of an
| artist who Is, or was, member of "a
| nous fishing club, and one of the most
| learned and enthusiastic takers about
| the beauties of fly fishing I ever heard
| laud the feathersand decry the bait.
| He painted this picture, I imagine, un-
| der the inspiration of his love for his
| other art, the art of fly casting.
ut was beautiful piece of work, and
| is now in the collection of a well-known
| high-class sportsman-one of the class
| that can tell simply by the smell of
| trout while it is cooking whether the
| fish was killed with fly or with
worm. The artist depicted the fly as
| cast on the troubled surface of a swift
| rapid, which, in nature, would have
swept the light-feathered hook down
| stream so quickly that the line and
| leader would have been taut from the
rod in q second. But in the picture the
| leader was represented as lying on the
water in careless loop above the spot
| where the fly had dropped while ths
| latter defled the velocity of the rapid
| AMI seemed really to he 9'at'ry Up
| steam to meet the trout which had
| lea ped high out of the warar, AMI was
poised in graceful cure ready to
swoor down on the patient and o5lis-
ing fly, like a hawk bouncing on a
| chicken. Scores OF people stepped at
the wirdow every day while TINS PIC.
tare was on exhibition, ana doubtless
held Il cir breath to see how thai tr.oIt
was going for that fly. lf the artist
had ever seen trout rise to d fly in
that wsy and failed 20 capture it. he
made great mistake. It woaId nave
been o curiosity worth wing stuffed.
"Iha real, everyday brook trout
dcesti't play the part of ii chicken ',awk
in tnfing his prey. He rises t. the fly
frcm the bottom of the water, rushing
upwerd like rocket. He takes it With
swoop and swirl from beneath, AMI
if he shows himself at Ill It IS when he
turrs to go back to his haunt at the
bottom. That painting vas an excel
lent illustration of the kpowle lge that
exists among the average gentleman
sportsman of the habits ofthe fish they
talk about SO knowingly.
Speaking of the way the trout rises
to the fly reminds me that his lordly
cousin the salmon, has much differ
eIl HdHHeT Wiltu ne uelSIiS W IeSpoHu
to the tempting trailing of the anglers
feather over his head. The salmon
doesn't come up with swoop and
swirl. He darts from his hiding place
with the same slly-rocket rush that
characterizes the trout's assault, but
just before he reaches the fly he pauses
a second beneath it. Only for a second,
though. Then he rises, opens his great
jaws, draws the fly and hook into his
mouth, and drops like plummet to-
ward the bottom. In dropping, he bur-
les the hook deep in his jaw, and 1t is
the fisherman's own fault if the salmon