Los Angeles herald., 1910-05-01
FORWARD
TO FIRST OF MAY
Anglers Taking Both Varieties of
Trout Freely in the Ven
tura Streams
LOWER SAN GABRIEL "ALL IN''
Ten Days of Good Sport Upon the
Upper SeSpe-The An
gIer'S Outfit
BY Il. l.. HEDDERLY

BY Il. l.. HEDDERLY
! Trout fishing continues TO hold the interest
of all anglers who not welded to some
other branch of rod and reel sport, although
few moro such days as closed the past
| week will start something to interest the salt
water brethren, whose portion thus far in the
season has been of the occasional crumo
order.
The chaotic condition of the trout law is
deplorable In Ventura county. where instruc-
| tions have gone forth from the proper au-
| thorities warranting anyone to take trout OF
any species wherever found of legal length,
good sport has been possible. In this county
| Deputy Fish Commissioner Pritchard has
been making an attempt to enforce the law,
J and last Sunday stopped nine anglers on the
San Gabriel without result, he says none
I of the nine had piscatorial evidence Of any
sort upon them. County Game Warden Nor
gan says the law is in such shape that he
VIII not pay any attention to It. 1t is doubt
! full IL a conviction could be had under the
rainbow law, and Prtchard knows this as
well as anyone, but takes the position that
| It is for him to enforce the law as 1t is
with the hope that If it be bad or i'm
practical measure the proper authorities Will
| change 1t when tho Legislature meets again.
! There Is enough good sense in both contentious
TO Justify either official in his course, all
according to the point Of view OF the critic
! So far as the lower San Gabriel is con-
cerned, fishing for this season in that stream
| is about at end. very skilled angler
might get a few, and some distance apart,
while there is much less water everywhere
| than even week ago. so the hsh are not
out in the rifles as much as they were Pools
can be fshed profitably by an angler OF less
| ability than success in locating scattered
! trout In the miniature rapids calls Tor. In
! such places the shallow water makes IL easy
! for the fish to about them, and as the
current is swift. they lay close, hardly ven
turing forth unless the bait be displayed be-
fore their very noses and in most tempting
manner When they do, It is usually for
business however, and the fish are more apt
to be hooked than in the still, deeper pools
where they have opportunity to amputate the
worm abaft the hook at their leisure.
The small steelheads. which early in the
season fairly infest the San Gabriel from
the canyon TO the Monte. are not an easy ilsh
to catch. To small size and perennially
well-fed stomach they add fondness Tor
| groveling along the bottom and biting short IL
| at all Snatching them out is the only sue
| cessful method, and It is secret that ex-
perence alone teaches The strike must De
| timed with almost the exactitude of setting
the artificial fly. Larger fish take better
hold and approach the bait with more dash'
The remnant Of snow in the mountains Is
| noetnir and the last few days have found
the San Gabriel rolled beyond the uses OF the
angler after noon Likewise, the water mas
warmed to a degree far above the TRADITIONS
| Of trout fishing, which Is made evident IN
the deterioration of the catch Tor taple use.
| Conditions up the canyon are apt 10 be oetter,
! but owing to the probability OF getting 100
| many rainhows above the intake few II any
! have nshed It, There will be an exodus TO
| the various camps May !. An ldea seshs
prevalent that the water VIII receue RAJ rnIiuig ~
/ and that the cream of the sport VIII pe
| SKINNED during the first two weeks OF hshlhg'
rbere has been a good food supply in the
San Gabriel this spring, and trout nave
| filled upon caddls worms. ants ana nugs, YET
worms which seldom are found In them'
and then only as evidence OF nook roppery, ~
are the best bait. Later on wise nsheriheh
to the mountains will try the cricket or
grasshopper without sinker used nodtlms
upon the surface. This bait Kills splenulu!y
| as rule and affords sport little inferior 10
the artificial fly. In using worms, many err
in not using enough split shot upon the
leader No. shot can be split and being
smaller than BIB, are less conspicuous, a.
we'll as not so apt to lodge in the rock
clofts as the larger size. while the weight
required to carry the leader wen down is as
/ easily approximated. Shot should not oe
| bunched but distributed over the lower TWO
feet with two or three at the head OF the
! hook-snell The Idea is to cause the leader
! to sink in uniform manner, so the palt WIN
| hebave as nearly as IL drifting as is possible
! and still get II down within striking as
tance of the fish, so they VIII be tempted
/ 10 rush forth from their lairs under the
rocks after 1t, and not be DISCOURAGED by
| the strong current from still further stuffns
their well-lned pouches,
Wilbur e. Cummings of Hollywood re-
turned Friday from a ten-days' fish on the
| Ssspe making Lathrop's place his headquar-
ters. He reports the water low out the ne
catch Of some 4SO odd trout, an average well
up toward the limit for each day IN size;
largest were about a foot IN length am ana
| so ali told it might he said he took the
J limit every day. This is not particularly
hard trip for an aspiring trout nsnorrnan aaI,sa1
who can spare the time. 1t can be reached
| from the Matilda. Sim Meyers old stand
/ by going over the ridge via the burro route.
The accommodations and eonVenlenees are
better than average. and the angler need
! not bother about his commissariat. Both
kinds of trout are taken and any fly proved
good enough.
Fishing still remains good in the Ven-
tura river. 1t is now possible TO VISIT TINS
stream and return to Los Angeles the same
! day. although that is crowding things more
! than goes with the vacation spirit OF recrea-
| tion via the trout-hshng route
| Trout in the mountain streams should be
taking the fly as freely ever thev do in
this country by the time that all the bars
~, let down before fishermen. Small sizes.
| small hooks. such as Nos. 10 and II and
| such patterns as the hackles, ROYAL Coach
! man, Red Ant. Bee Professor and Grizzly
King, with Montreal. Jungle Cock, prefer
ably Judge Harry Roses variation of that
nattern, which seems to be n very good
lure for these waters; and a few hdbes or
gnats for very small size which look like
! q
the sportsman's cult. trout fishers are prone
to load themselves up with lot of useless
Junk in inverse proportion to their eXperi-
ence serving the douby disadvantageous pur-
pose of impedlmenta, and wasting time at
| the stream-side trying out a lot of stuff that
| ir soberer moments would be condemned upon
| sights Two or three small spocCs are ant
to be useful in big pools an dsometimes the
| glitter of a spoon viii raise a big trout
| that passes up everything else 1t is well
to get different patterns; some are preferred
I'm some waters and others in others. In the
Ventura river they use small wobbling
spoon a great deal: ii is OF the Stewart pat
tern The oval Emerc spinnsrs popular
for steelheads also In fact. ANYTHING that
makes an irregular interrupted flash like
th1 sides of small Ash frantically wriggling
to escape sudden death, will answer.
Many trout fishermen, after investing $25
or $50 in an outfit which ought to buy
n .st-elass equipment of rod. reel, line, creel,
IL not generally needful hereabouts. neglect to
pay as much attention to their clothing and
personal comfort, which has a great deal to
do with success Waterproofs all right
in their way. but unless going far up into
the mountains, where { will be very cold,
along two pairs extra: old. broken out hunt
ing shoes or tennis shoes with rubber soles.
make good footgear. 1t is well to figure upon
getting wet, that is what generally hap
pens, whether expected or not There
some heavy rubber-soled canvas shoes made
for this work which are good. but hard to
find What is called Basketball shoe" has
n,ar~ admirers Stones are both hard and
slippery; the trout fisher must be sure of his
footing and as silent as a predatory cat
Many forget that even the turmoil of a trout
stream does not prevent the fish therein feel