New-York tribune., 1905-08-20
ART IN FLY FISHING.
Andre1c Lang Discourses on Herbert
Spencer's Vie1cs of the Sport.

the alders beside a water in Morvsrl which
he calls The Aline" in his autobiography.
Mr.. Spencer had a true Briton's frank dislike
Of language not his own. whether ancient
modern In fact. this philosopher typicaliy
the British schoolbOy in many ways The river.
if it has a name, is the AVIAN Dubh. or BLACK
Water" which is hardly name at all "Alne"
Gin Gaelic .beautiful'D is the well deserved title
OF the sea loch into which the stream falls be-
meath an ancient castle In the alders, 10 re-
turn from philology. Mr.. Spencer fishing.
with light one handed rod: at that time. ana
in that place, heretical rod. for as there were
salmon in the stream light rods were at a dis
count My younger brother and I were driving
past the way TO fish in the fresh water loch
whence the river issues and in hopes OF a casual
wild duck had guns. shall we shoot the
philosopher sittng2" OF us asked. for We
only knew of The angler that he was called
"the philosopher" held heterodox opinions about
fly hooks and caught trout enough to make US
envious.
This incident came back TO my memory when
reading Mr. Spencer's reflections flies in his
autobiography. He always loved to dash at
any received opinion except the current opin-
ion that TO study the classics is a waste OF
time). and when he came To a river or lOciI
where there were fayorite flies ne attacked the
belief in them just as he attacked any other be-
lief. He mentions that. armed with other flies OF
his own clubbing. he fshed match against a
farmer who used orthodox flies. and that the
match ended in tie But, rather unpAi0-
sophicaIIy he does not mention the relative
thickness of the gut employed by himself ana
his opponent; probably the philosopher used very
fine gut. Long ago he held, was credited by
US boys with the opinion. that flies should be
tied in the reverse of the ordinary way. ths
wings pointing down toward the line from The
bend of the hook. lie thought that sunk MES
fshed down stream. thus looked more hatur'i
in the water and behaved more lively. AS rsr
as know he had no experience in dry hshins
on chalk streams. where you necessarily Ieavn
more about facts than in any other way. for
you see what the trout is doing before you cast
over him. with all that follows.
| Mr.. Spencer was very strongly of opinion that
salmon do not discriminate between coiors and
shades of flies The fish sees a small hutterins
object in HfeIike molten,
And if he'll take. he'll take.
You may depend ont.
And if he wont he won't and
The fly may be an Eagle Cmuseas non captat
aquila,'' but the Eagle takes salmon). or a JOCK
Scott. or a PoDharn or a Durham Ranger. or
a Bulldog it is all one TO the fish, ii he means
taking These opinions are pretty COM
| monty held, but Mr.. Spencer srieVed over the
! superstition of educated men who still believed
thai any one fly is better than another The
process of conversion to this faith. he said. was
that some body had 4 good day with a particular
| fly and went about a2plaudiDg it, The slliies
| or keepers sang it's praises. it acquired local
| renown and, everybody used IL, OF course II
| caught most fish. and prospered in the struggle
| for existence. Thus the Popham had all the
| chances on the AIine as Mr.. Spencer named the
/ water though. if equally used. the Silver Grey
| would have done just as we'll 1t is the size,
| appropriate to the state of the water, high or
| low and not the color that does the business
| This fact has become so obvious that people
| buy many flies just as a collector buys many
miniatures. They are pretty to look at. though
| salmon cares no more for their beauty than
| he does for that of Cosway a Pliner- To
| change flies when fish won't take fills up time
| and suggests flicker OF nope renewed But a
! true philosopher Will not talk this wisdom TO
| a gillie on a strange steam any more than he
will argue against the mans faith in the sec
| Ond sight in fairies. Belief in the local IA
| vOrite flies is part of the gillie's unconscious
| poetry
Leave thou thy gilHe, when he plays.
Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse
His notion OF the hook that pays
If one fly does just as we'll as another (and
| this Is the creed philOsophicaD use such flies
as set before you. The concoction has sue
| eeeded often before, and may succeed again.
| whereas if you insist on novel experiment.
your attendant turns rusty, and thinks you rot
| a wise man but self-cOnceited prig- NO man
not shade OF color tinsel. is to make you
| lucky or unucky. To be sure. if YOU succeed
! with the local flies you are only strengthening
| the local superstition, but what crime is that?
L have corroborated superstttions much more
| wicked. such as the second sight aforesaid A
gillie told friend of mine that he had seen the
| Angel of Death swoOp down on a bOv and pluck
/ his hat off. whereupOn that boy sckened and
| died. The statement tough" but my friend
| probably capped it with d tougher. I do nor
| deem II becoming in a philosopher to check
| these primitive beliefs as long they 60 nos
] lead TO the use Of the angel minnow for salmon
As TO trout flies the philosophical question
| is much more difficult than in the case OF SAL
mon- intermediate come sea trout flies which
practically are salmon flies I'm miniature. No
real insect of these isles is like the brilliant but
crude colOrs Of the Heckham Peckhan. and only
| a most monStrOus moth. half drowned. can re-
semble the CObbery, though Black Zulus NAV
possibly be taken for drowning spiders. Sea
trout when hungry will take almost any little
packet of feathers. though in autumn when
waSpS abroad. they really show prefer
ence for the black and yellow wasp, ex-
perience, perhaps msinterpreted makes me apt
TO think. In pOpulOus unfished waters trout will
take almost anything that briStes with the
1alntest conventional resemblance 70 an insect.
Even IN chalk stream. when a breeze ruffies
a long dead pool. 1t does not matter whether yOu
dredge the water with sunk alder. a March
Brown. "a Hare-LUg and WOodcock Wing"
nature has evolved Trout. If hungry. will take
the lure trust, whatever natural fly Is on the
water. even if there be none. Their behavior
is exactly parallel 10 that of salmon or sea trOur
on windy lcch pool. Except that they in
sist on fine gut the trout not more discrin-
mating. Mr.. Stewart author of The Practical
Angler maintained long ago that chosen half
dozen OF flies were quite enough for rivers like
the Tweed all through the season II has been
demonstrated by Sir Herbert Maxwell that trout
i'm the madness of the May-fly time. will take
bright red or bright blue artificial May-AieS IL
properly presented TO their consideration. Thus
the question as 10 The selection by trout OF ar
tifcial flies which resemble those on the water
is much limited even in dry fly fishing. When
such a tiny fly the Fishers Curse a minute
is a. reia an, ,3fr,a~