The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-04-18
WHAT TROUT WILL EAT.
Some Observations by Practiced and
Practical Fisherman.

Some Observations by Practiced and
Practical Fisherman.
The following is the first of a short
series OF articles on trout fishing, written
by an expert angler, and doubtless there
are many fond lovers OF the beautiful and
pleasant pastIme who will appreciate the
writer's ideas piscatorially:
1presume that many anglers will feel indig-
nant. and will censure me severely for pre-
Stunning TO admit that anything but an ex-
tremelv strained relationship can exist be.
tween f1y-fshing and bait-fshing; in fact, the
time has been when such an avowal from an
other would have called forth an indignant
protest from myself, but thirty years of en-
thusiastic devotion TO the fy-rod in many
chimes, and more opportunities OF closely
studying my fayorite sport than falls to the
lot of most anglers, have long since convinced
me that before man can become an expert
angler with the artificial fly he must thor
oughly realize what fl fishing actually is.
Any small fleeing object apparently pos
sessing life suggests edibility to a feeding
trout. A trout when in feeding humor will
pursue and seize any moving object which
edible.
A neatly tied artificial fly OF the smaller
kind, carefully dressed to bear general re-
semb ance 10 one or another OF the many
smaller living beings with which the trout
are familiar, under Inc general hasty competi-
tive political economy governing trout strea ms,
Will pe received Uy the trout ana mOutneQ
without discrimination. But mass of satu-
rated, bedraggled feathers and hackle-such
as that which large trout fly becomes after q
few casts-cannot possibly suggest any ia
milfar prototype to hungry fish; he cannot
regard IL as one of the smaller submerged in
sects upon which he is accustomed to feed !;
but the mass OF feathers and hackle moves /;
1t is apparently endowed with life, and
the trout Straightaway goes for it on the
general prin ciple that some thing that moves
and attempts to elude him must be good to
eat.
1t is 10 the a bove fact alone that the large
troutflies owe their killing value. For if trout
were solely insectiyorous and fed only on
flies large flies would have no place in the
anglers hybook; but the fact of trout being
by turns both insectivorous and carnivorous-
at times feeding on insects only, and again
at others ignoring insect diet and combining
themselves exclusively 10 small fry, and such
like foods the reason large flies are as neces-
sary to the angler as the small ones.
The great secret OF successful hy'hsnlng,
apart from expert casting, lies in knowing the
feeding humor of the fish. If trout is feed
ing upon insects il is useless to offer him a
large troutfy; If, on the other hand, trout
is securing the shadows pursuing the smaller
fishes in his vicinity in quest of something
meaty and filling, 1t is q waste of time TO tempt
him with small fly.
flies have their separate and individual mis-
sions and that one can be sent upon errands
upon which it would be useless TO employ the
other. The above observations are intended
to apply to large trout only, or, in anglers
parlance, ''sizable fish," Any bungler can
catch small trout. hence consider them un-
worthy good anglefs notice, and, as such, /
o not include them in my comments hey ond
stating that have always found small trout
extremely cratic in disposition, often Selling
any thing edible without regard to time or
place-in fact, being like the younger mem
bers OF any family, fishy or otherwise-un-
formed in character, consequently irregular n
behavior and possessing no settled habits
from which to deduce any data of value.
1t Is common thing to hear the trout
spoken of as surface feeder or hy-ieeding
fish. This statement, being made In an I'M
qualified sense of the term, lnyaria bly, conveys
TO. the angling novice the erroneous impress
sion that trout feed principally, if not Wholly.
upon insect life. Such a statement puts the
would-be hy-fisherman upon the wrong track
from the siart, leading him to consider the
hundred aud one feathered combinations
which decorate his fiyhooks as being artificial
substitutes and limitations of the various IN
sects upon which the trout feed whereas fully
three-fourths of them bear no relation what
ever TO the insectivorous portion of trouts
diet, they being merely lighter form of arti-
fetal bait-a substitute of feathers and tinseI
for the trolling spoon, artificial minnow. and
such like lures.
AS I before stated, hungry trout will
pursue and seize a small moving objee: of
almost any description that comes within its
reach and in illustration of the a bove asser-
ton, l will mention few OF the many ex-