The sun., 1919-05-04
''CATSKILL WET TOPS |
OTHERS TROUTING
Lures Eight Out of Twenty4
three Fish Taken on Six
Different Streams.
ROYAL COACHMAN SECOND
The Important Role ThatColor
Plays in Inducing FOn-
tonalis to Rise to Fly.
by yIRGINIUs.

To-day I found the stream where
the brook trout take the Royal Coach~
man: 1 had serious doubts If there was
such n stream. Some time ago "Stnl-
water sent me a dry Royal Coach
man along with another dry fly of un-
certain parentage; that is the only rea-
son 1 happened to have that pattern
with me.
flshed for a while with indifferent
results, noticing n tendency on the part
OF the fish to rise to light wings with
dash of color in the body, Just for
fun--or perhaps should say in honor
of "Stilwater"-I put on the Royal
Coachman. Bang The first crack q
nice native.
Within an hour I took four more on
the same fly. During that time 1 tried
number of other patterns to no avail
showing that the Ash really wanted the
Euyal Coachmnn.
Then 1 deposited the said Royal
Coachman in the topmost branches OF
nearby tree. and my fishing ended
for the day. ] didn't tangle my leader
once all day (speculator papers please
| copy. And my boots didn't leak
either. / did get little wet just north
OF my boot tops by squatting down too
low to the surface OF the stream.
To-day, for the first time, I saw y
brook trout break water on slacie
lire; he came out Just like a rainbow
| trout. Has any reader of Rod and
Gun seen this? If 20 please let us hear
about It.
Flies Lure 20 Trout,
AS It may prove of some interest TO
some of the "bugs" ! give n list OF the
| flies and sizes with which have taken
| the twenty-three trout l have caught
this season. do this also In the hope
that others will follow suit:
Eight trout on No. IL Catskill wet
three trout on No. IA Whlrling Blue
Dun dry one trout on No. IL March
Brown wet; one trout on No. 10 Hof-
| lands Fancy wet: two trout on No. -
Coachman wet; two trout on No. -
| light fly OF my own design. wet: one
| trout on No. 16 Coachman dry, and five
| trout on No. IL Royal Coachman dry.
These were taken on six different
streams. I have fished the Cowdung--
! my old favorite-until switch Caster"
| told me of the Catskill. for hours with
| no result. ! suppose ! have lost faith
in 1t, and, as ALLEN" says in THE SuN,
one must have faith in the flies one uses
in order to be Successful with them. An
other old favorite that have worked
hard with IS the Hare's Ear. both wet
and dry SO far no results with it,
| Importance of Color in Flies.
Just how important color is In flies,
! am not prepared to say; that ID
has considerable influence I am con-
WINGED Of. Size is certainly to be reck-
oned with, but shape, or form. except
! that the fly must have a buggy look,
does not seem to have " very great
Importance.
l will qualify that last statement by
saying that a fly tied. wet will ordi-
nariy mot always) take better than
a fly tied dry fished wet. This is prob
ably due TO the fact that the wet fly
! "swirns'' better because its wings are
laid fiat.
In looking over my records from 1919
on, I find that l have not taken u
on a Grouse Spider. which WAS tied
in the form of spinner. l have used
several hackles quite a bit. and per-
haps this refutes my statement that
form is relatively unimportant except
that fly must look buggy. Others are
very successful with the hackles. how
| ever. so there you are.
The more fish the more I am
Convinced that color plays an impor-
tant yole, but the more | fish the less
sure l am what this role is. Severn,
years ago / would have underta aiken
to tell you all about It, but now [
won't. one dav proves one thing. and
the next proves the opposite. When
| I reach the point where I decide know
nothing whatever about trout or flies
| I'll pyploiu IL all