The sun., 1919-07-27

The writer returned from trout FISH,
ing trip In the Poconos Of Pennsylvania
the last week in June. with experiences
calculated to confirm In his mind the
BELIEF in necessity for a liberal assert
ment of flies when angling for the brown
trout, and with the earnest wish that
some Of the Rod and Gun page advo-
Gates OF three or four flies had been
with him to put their belief.to the test
fished but one stream. and that q
small river with an overwhelming ma
jority of brown trout The weather had
been warm and sunny for q fortnight,
with the result that the stream was rela-
lively low and clear. For the first ten
days Of my stay there was q good
hatch Of flies on the water daily. The
last four days there were no apprecfable
matches, and the flies on the water
seemed to be very small.
The fly that was the most numerous
during the big matches was q species
Of ephemera with gauze wings and an
uptilted thorax of DARK brown color,
ribbed with lighter color that was of a
yellowish tint The natives called this fly
the 'shad fly" though 1 question IL 1t
was the true shabby. The fish rose
greedily to this pretty Insect, which
seemed to hatch most freely from late
in tho afternoon until dusk.
Twenty Files Tested.
Realizing that here was an oppor-
tunity to try out again the question
Of correct form and color against any
well tried and usually successful pat
tern, tested the trout during these
matches with no less than twenty files
Of various shapes and colorings. The
results were not of a kind to make me
go over to the school of those who say
they can get along perfectly well with
a bare half dozen flies.
I used at various times the Cowdung,
Royal Coachman, Ginger Quill. Red
Quill, Olive Quill, Beaverkill, Pale Eve
ming Dun, Blue Dun, Whirling Dun
Catsl1ill, March Brown, Cahill. Quill
Gordon. Wickham's Fancy, Pink Lady,
Skew's Hackle, Little Marryatt, Grannon,
Queen of the Waters and several other
patterns surely a large enough assort-
ment for a thorough test.
Furthermore, was careful to try out
these flies under practically similar con-
ditions of wind. water, temperature and
time of the day. For three days. also,
l violated the ethics of dry fly fishing by
putting two flies on my leader.
From o'clock until dark one after
noon, while big flight of the so-called
4
every fly / have mentioned. From 4
until got rises only to the Red Quill
and the Ginger Quill, which flies I had
already made up my mind were the best
matches had to the flies on the water
I had caught two trout on the Red
Quill and one on the Ginger Quill when
/ decided that l could make my Red
Quill closer match to the shabby by
doing a little barbering. 1T was an
English fly with a detached body, COM
ing up from the hook at an angle GORE
spending TO the bodies of the hatch.
cut off most OF the hackles. which were
too red, and darkened the wings with
a soft lead pencil. as they looked too
light on the water. Then with the re-
vised edition / caught four Ssh one after
the other, and had more sport and action
than at any time during the day. Un-
fortunately l had but the one fy with
the detached body and 1t soon went to
pieces. A half hour of the best fishing
of the day remained. I put on the Gin
ger Quill and used II until dark. I had
two rises only with It. each OF them
short"
Results on Various Flies,
Now II one fly is practically as good
as another. why didn't j get fish with
the eighteen-odd which the trout re-
fused to recognize? Why did get many
more rises with the remade Red Quill
than with the original? Why, after that
meat getter'' wore out, did the trout
practically stop rising when i offered
them the Ginger Quill. though the nat
ural hatch was still on the water and
the trout were feeding eagerly?
During my ten days fish caught four
trout on the Cowdung; three on the
the Ginger Quill; twelve on the Red
Quill none on the olive Quilt none on
the Beaverkill seven on the Pale Even
ing Dun: three on the Blue Dun; none
on the ,Whirling Dun, the catskill, the
Quill Gordon. Skews Hackle. Little Mar
ryatt or the Pink Lady; three on the
Cahill and six on the Queen of the
Waters-not remarkable fishing by any