The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-26
THE FLY-FIsHER's GENTLE ART.
What Long Experience Has Taught
the Angler for Trout with Flies.


From the New York Sun.
Fly-fishing in Northern Maine waters
will soon be prime. From the LIST to
the 18th of June is the recognized time
for the beginning of the best of this
sport. The secret of the growing pop
ularity of this sport lies in the fact
that it is an art, and like all art 1t
has an ideal which one is ever striving
for, but never quite attains. One who
begins in proper form can, with prac-
tice, continually improve in distance,
accuracy and delicacy. Accuracy and
delicacy are the main requisites of the
pratical fisherman, distance casting
figuring principally in contests and
exhibitions. The distance record is
something over 140 feet, but the aver
age fisherman will seldom use more
than so and never more than so feet
of line.
Fly-casting is simply a motion of
the wrist and forearm, a quick twitch
back at the proper time and another
forward when the line has had time to
straighten out behind. The more line
cast the more time is, of course, re-
quired for the back cast. Theoretical
ly these casts should be the same.
The novice bungles for several rea-
sons; because he uses not only the
wrist and forearm, but the entire arm
and the body as we'll; does not give
the back cast sufficient time, or throws
the rod too far forward, thus making
it impossible for the line to unwind
and come down easily and naturally.
Accuracy and delicacy come from
long practice and are most essential
accomplishments. The big trout which
lie in wait for tempting morsels I'M
der logs and lily pads or beside rush
ing eddies, pay little attention to
fly unless it is put down in the right
spot and in the right manner.
Long experience has taught them
that there is something very suspicious
about dainty bits which come into the
water in unnatural ways. Heavy,
splashing casts may attract the small
and inexperienced trout, the kind of
trout that one may take one minute,
throw back, and catch again ten min
utes later: the frolicsome. festive
trout which jump for everything, from
tiny bits of wood up to big maple
leaves; but the big fellows, the old
timers, do not pay any particular at
tention to this sort of casting.
And for these reasons, and many
more, there is deal to learn in fly
fishing. In quick or running water
trout win often take the fly when it
is allowed to float down past their re-
treat naturally with the current, while
they will refuse TO rise to the same
fly dragged against the current. In
one instance the lure is following nat
ural laws. and in the other it is Vio-
lating them, and the big trout have
sense enough to know it.
For the same reason. in pond fish
ing, it is necessary to put a fly down
just as a natural fly alights, as gent
ly as a falling feather. 1t is often
mako cast that the
flies will hang upon bush that over
hangs a pool for a few moments be-
fore dropping into the water below.
This trick will often fool the oldest
trout, when a cast made directly into
the water would attract no attention
whatever.
The reason is plain. The trout below
lie there hiding, waiting for flies to
light upon the bushes. They see them
light, and wait for them to fall. When
a fly comes suddenly into view from
nowhere, and suddenly disappears just
as mysteriously, they know something
is wrong.
Big trout will net rise close to a ca
noe or boat. Place two fishermen in
the same craft at the right point, and
have one cast twenty feet and the
other So Nine times out of ten the one
casting twenty feet will be taking
trout running six and eight to the
pound, and the one casting fifty will
be landing trout weighing from half
pound to a pound and a half. Let two
men fish from the same boat, and up
on opposite sides, and let one make
bungling casts and the other place the
flies upon the water with delicacy, and
much the same results will follow.
There is also a difference in the way
the flies must be handled when once
upon the water. For instance, early
in the season trout take a wet fly that
is an inch or so under water, simply
because they are not rising freely, but
feeding mainly under the surface.
Later on the flies must be trolled
gently on the surface, and at times
when the trout fly is in evidence a
hopping fly tempts even the most In
different fish. This is because the
trout fly, of which the f1sh are very
fond. differs from other flies in pos
sessing the ability to light upon the
water, rest a moment, and fly off again.
The average fly or miller is down for
good when once it strikes the surface.
The idea that trout may be taken
upon the fly at all times is decidedly
an error Trout will not rise well I'M
less conditions are favorable. in the
majority of waters.
There are, to be sure, places where
BILE conditions, but they are very few,
and invariably the sportsman soon tires
of the sport where these unnatural con-
ditions exist. Water, wind and tenn
perature have much to do with bring
ing about the best f1y-fishing, and for
lust this reason it is not every day
that the fisherman finds the fish in the
right mood, even if he is where the fish
are.
Early in the season warm weather
draws the trout from the deep to the
shallow water, but later on warm
weather sends them from shallow to
deep water, and cool weather brings
them back to shallow water again.
There are days when the trout are ris-
ing continually, but generally few
hours at morning and evening afford
the best fishing of the day.
Small trout require much more food
than larger fish. 1t is making a con-
sentative estimate to state that a six
inch trout rises fifty times where
pound trout rises once, and a pound
trout twenty times to once for four
pound fish.
There is a general belief among non
fishermen that trout bite the fly. Such
is not the case. The trout, attracted
by the fly, rises for 1t with the in
tent to take it in it's mouth, carry it
away and devour it. The fish runs with
it's food from other fish, just as a
chicken runs with a worm from other
chickens, but on touching the fly the
trout's keen nose tells instantly that
it has been deceived, and it spits the
lure out at once.
For this reason the strike is neces-
sary and the fisherman must be quick.