Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-28
Col. Sterrett Describes His Beginning
as Fly Fisherman.
BUCK AGUE FROM A SUN FISH
Some Remarkable Double Catches
of Bass on Single Hooks.
RECENT SPORT UP RIVER

Col William G. Sterrett Arthur McCor-
mick and The Star man were watching De-
egate Mark Smith of Arizona while he was
selecting some trout flies Thursday. He is
going to use them down in Virginia next
week. The sight of the: flies which were
srread out for M. Smiths inspection caused
Col. Sterrett to become reminiscent II
shall never forget" he remarked "the time
was overtaken and surcharged from head
to foot with hot ambition to become a
fly fisherman. I'd never had any expert
ence In that kind Of sport. l had hshed In
Texas with wums, had iured EN- on ards
with crawfish u'ther north an had invited
'em to destruction with bull minnows up
In these diggin's, but I'd never had any
thing to do with these hair and feather
contrapshuns called f}shin' flies. But Ia
made up my mild, as 1 said 4befo'. to be 4
fly fisherman, an 1 plunged in. reckon
1 was nightly like a fellow named John
Swat. that used to live in Brazos county.
Texas. John took up the notion all of Il
sudden one day that he was going to be a
pre- acher, an he confided this intention to a
galherin of his friends. Somebody asked
him what denomination he expected to do
the pulpit act for. John said he hadn't
really thought of that, but he wasn't par
ticular; said he would sorter like to leave 1t
to his friends what special sect he should
tackle. What he wanted to do, he said, was
to preach, an it made no earthly difference
to him who he preached to. An old fellow
named Casa Wilson said that there was
already q Methods an two or three kinds
of Baptis preachers In Brazos county, but
there wasn't any Presbyterian, an Casa
called attention to the fact that good
many Presbyterians had moved down into
BraZos lately from up north, SO he thought
John had better hang out his shingle as a
preacher of that denomination. John said
that suited him first rate. So they put
notice in the weekly paper that the Rev.
John Swat would preach to the Presby-
terians of Brazos county at Slump Hollow
on the Sunday two weeks followin. John
was a pretty furseein' kind of a fellow, so
he goes to old Casa Wilson an says: Casa
l reckon I've got to get some one to fix up
that sermon I'm goin' to preach up there
at Slump Hollow. To tell you the truth, 1
don't know nothin' about no Presbyterian
business Casa said he'd fix that all right
He knew young fellow just fresh from a
big college up north, an he would get him
to fix up a Presbyterian sermon. Well,
Casa did see the. young fellow, an he said
certny, he'd write him a f1rst-class Pres
byterian sermon: he liked to help the am
bilious an soulful along. So he wrote off a
whole lot of stuff an sent 1t to John Swat
an when the Sunday came thefe was the
dcggonedest gathering of Presbyterians at
Slump Hollow that ever was. Well, John
got up an read that sermon, an he hadn't
got to more'n about thirdly when a great
big orthodox brother rose up an pulled a
half long an began poppin' away at the
preacher. John lodged down behind the
pulpit an asked for explanation. 1t turned
out that the sermon he had delivered or
was deliverin' just took the theory of pre-
destination by the back of the neck and
tore it vide open.
He Selects His Flies.
well. as I was saying" continued the
colonel, Il went up against fly fishing very
much like John did up against Presbyter-
ianism. I didn't know thing about it.
But I knew the first thing to do was to
lay in a supply of flies. So 1 went up to
where they kept 'em for sale and told 'em
to spread out the whole stock Of flies. You
know I've got a tendency toward the
bright side of things. / like brightness in
color, brightness in men, an speshully
brightness in women. So when it came to
selectin' those flies this tendency stuck
out. l reckon I bought the dazzinest ar
ray of flies that were ever stuck together
in a book The blue ones struck my fancy
particularly, an 1 got some that looked
like pieces of the cerulean skies, an l got
some red, white an blue ones, thinking
that it would attract the patriotic fish,
an then l got some red, white and red
ones to use up in Shenandoah. Well
hied me up to Woodmont and proceeded
to do my first great act at fly fshn'.
1 went out in boat with John Miller and
1 tied three of the prettiest blue flies you
ever saw in your life onto my line an watt
ed 'em overheard. There was a bunch of
about fourteen great big bass just where
1 threw those things, an when those bass
saw en they just turned tail and scooted
off to tell the other members of the family
about the fearful an wonderful new hor-
rors that had struck the Potomac river.
He Gets the Buck Ague.
"Well, l fshed with these blue flies all
day an didn't catch fish. Neither did
John Miller. He was kept too busy keepin'
my flies off him. Next day John and
went out again, and this time put on three
red, white and red flies. 1 dashed 'em
overheard an was waftin' 'em gently
down the stream when a sun fish about
five inches long came sailing along after
the tail ender.
Gentlemen" said the colonel, earnestly,
II be burned if 1 didn't have the buck
ague. 1 have killed 'em. 1 have killed
butler, / have killed all the big game pretty
near in the country an never had a touch
of that fever until up to that time. But
1t struck me hard then. / couldn't move
that rod an inch. OF course the fly stopped
an the sun fish just turned tail an went
scootin' away. That thing happened four
or five times that day, an l got frightened
about myself. an I got to arguin' with
myself an tellin' myself that there wasn't
any use to be afraid of the fish; that no
little fish was agon' to jump into the boat
an eat me. But it was no use. had con-
tracted the disease, an 1t just had to wear
off slow.
The Longest Cast ON Record.
But 1 caught one fish that day." said
the colonel in conclusion, "an' reckon
made the longest cast of a fly thereafter
that ever was made in the world. You
know, 1t bein' my first experience in fly
fishin, didn't know anything about toss
in the thing out. But drove steers down
IN Texas with big, long-handled whip,
with a thirty-foot lash on it, SO just used
that rod, you know, like did that old bull
whip and that is how caught fish. You
see, / throwed my rod back over my should
err and my tail fly just touched the water
behind the boat, and behind me- and just
as 1 was gettin' ready to shoot her out,
| the same as If / was tryin to hit the fifth
steer from the wagon tongue on the left
| flank. little sun fish made grab at that
fly an caught it. Just as 1t did brought
my whip, 1 mean my rod. for ard with all
my strength. an that sun fish went sail
ing up into the sky and flynn up the
Potomac river. maxim my old reel sing
| like Methodist class leader. I UNDER
stan that the record of castin' flies is
about 40 feet. but the cast l made that
day was about ITO yards. an amt exag-