The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-13
LIFE OF TROUT DUE
TO GOOD GUESSING
Longevity Depends Upon Pow
ers of COMBINATIONS" Fish's
Moods Discussed.
FLIES THAT ARE USEFUL
Biological Impulse That
Prompts Men to Go Fishing
on Opening Day.
FLIES THAT ARE USEFUL
by EDWIN ". sANBoRN.

an, clad TO note that THE SUN rec
ognizes the biological nature OF the i'm
pulse that prompts men to go ny fish,
ing on the first day of the trout season.
Perhaps YOU will agree that the same
rule OF Interpretation may be applied
TO the sacred books OF the artificial
flies. There 10 no lack OF scientific
date
Fishing was one OF the few things
that Herbert Spencer believed in. In
his autobiography he says:
"My constitutional tendency to call
in question current opinions was mani
Tested when fishing. as on other oc-
casions' II occurred to me that
considering how low is the nervous or
ganization of fishes 1t Is unlikely that
they should be able TO discriminate so
nicely as the current ideas respecting
artificial flies imply-unlikely. too. that
they should have such errsfic fancies
as 10 be taken by combinations of diff
ferently colored feathers, like no liv-
Ing creature ever seen"
View OF Earl Grey.
He then goes on with cold biooded
precision to show how this deduction
was reached by inquiry. experiment and
observation. II IL not easy to see how
a wet fly. bedraesled pencil OF feath-
ers. dragged through such medium as
water. can be the object of much dis
elimination on the part of FISH Dry
flies and any hy floating With cooked
wings are different.
Yet Earl G<ey. whose Judgment as a
laynnaD should correspond with that of
Spencer as a scientist. says in his book
on dry ny fishing that like most anglers
he carries too many flies that three
varieties TO provide for varying cir
cumstanceS are enough and that the
angler is more important than the fiy.
We think Of artificial flies as we behold
them In the show cases. beautiful mas
terpieces of the n1illiner's art. We think
of a fish selecting its favorits NY as an
Intelligent housewife fresh from a
course in domestic science selects meats
and vegeta bles.
But n we take w the latest scientific
stuff, such as Loebs tropism theory of
animal corduct we are again discon-
certed The author presents what he il
pleased TO call the simple mechanistic
conception of tropistic reactions. He
speaks with morose satisfaction of re-
ducing the movements OF animals to
cumulative mathematical laws.
Wilderness and Civilized Rivers.
mails moves toward its food exactly as
plant bends toward a window. An in
sect feeding fish whose ancestors for
some hundreds of thousands of years
have been accustomed TO rise to insect
lfe on the surface, responds 10 that
impulse "a a locomotive moves when
the lever is pulled In the remotest
wilderness where hsh are unsophisti-
Gated this works cut all right. One may
stand on the shore of pellucid lake
with the bright sun behind him, cast a
ny and see the whole process OF the rise
Of two pound trout.
To such a trout the shadow on the
water and the motions of the angler
mean no more than the waving branches
OF tree. In a civilized river like the
Beaverkill, much frequented by
anglers the fish become counter in
fiuenced in "inhibitions"
After trout has been inhibited a
few times by the scratch Of a Parma
chenee Belle. his longevity depends upon
his powers OF "orientation" as between
the impulse and the inhibition; that is,
on how good a guesser he is.
Moods ana lenses of Trout.
There are symposiums of anglers now
going on in the Rod and Gun column
and in sportsmen's magazines as to
favorite flies. DR.. Robert T. Morris.
than whom no one Is better competent
to speak either from the practical or
biological point of view saws in s,I,-
stance that In the unfrequented wild
a trout viii eat anything that doesn't
eat him first.
On streams that are intensiveIy fished
three or four varieties OF files are use
full to meet varying conditions. The
testimony Of the great body of
anglers Ia Overwhelming as to the eff
fectiveness OF fly lore ana of intel
ligent experiment But even so. mitch
may depend on the moods and lenses OF
the trout
/ The patient angler fatters himself
that after a long siege of tho difficult
poo! where others have failed he has
| at last tempted the willy trout TO the
surface. but the trout after an hour or
two may have recovered his appetite
or may merely be rising to a point OF
| rder