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125 147

FRANCIS E. SELL

* i5 *ANCIS E.SELL

Here is a book to quicken the pulse of every
freshwater fisherman from the beginner to
the expert. A veteran angler who can
almost think like a wily brown trout reveals
the hard- won secrets that have again and
again helped him to catch fish when others
were going away empty-handed. Basically,
the book's message is a simple one: any-
one who expects to take fish consistently
must be versatile. He must take into ac-
count all the factors that make up a "com-
plete matching" of the lure with the
naturals on which the fish are feeding*
Whether casting a dry fly for trout or plug-
ging for bass, the right equipment must be
backed up by proper presentation and
sound knowledge of the water, the seasons,
and the habits of aquatic life.

The author draws on his own incomparable
experience to spell this lesson out and apply
it to a hundred different angling situations.
He tells the reader how to distinguish be-
tween dry- and wet-fly water, how to tempt
bass with" poppers and nymphs, where to look
for fish on those hot summer days, how to fish
worms and grasshoppers with delicacy, how
to anticipate a hatch, and even how to take
advantage of a trout's memory of earlier
feeding periods. Whether the quarry is the
rampaging Pacific steel head or the scrappy
little panfish, the book is a challenge to all
orthodox and unorthodox fishermen to catch
more fish and have more fun doing it.

A true frontiersman of southwest Oregon,
Francis E. Sell has devoted his entire life to
fishing and related sports. A former angling
editor of American Woodsman, he is well
known as a regular contributor to outdoor
magazines.

A river is a challenge and at the same time a refuge.

PRACTICAL
FRESH WATER

FISHING

FRANCIS E. SELL

THE RONALD PRESS COMPANY NEW YORK

No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form without permission in writ-
ing from the publisher*

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 60-7611

PRINTED IK THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

LANS LANEVE
Conservationist, Outdoorsman, and Friend

PREFACE

This is a fisherman's book. No matter whether you fish for trout
along a flashing mountain stream, go for panfish with a worm, or
take catfish on quiet evenings when the stars are held captive in the
dark waters, it is a book written for you. It tells you how to fool a
wise old brown trout with a dry fly, the basic lore of wet fly fishing,
the way to use streamers and plugs, the proper equipment and a
lot more. In short, this book discusses the why's and how's of fresh
water fishing in all their manifestations. It is based on the trials,
errors, and successes of my practical experiences.

I am deeply indebted to many other practical fishermen who
have contributed to the book by their suggestions as to what it
should contain. Thanks are also due Lyman Hawbacker, Editor of
The American Woodsman, and Lawrence Kelly, Editor of Fishing
Waters of the World, for permission to use certain material of mine
which first appeared in their magazines.

I am going fishing. You come, too!

FRANCIS E. SELL
Riverton, Oregon

January, 1960

CONTENTS

CHA

PTER

PAGE

HEAVY CREELS FROM CROWDED WATERS

THE HUMBLE WORM WITH A DIFFERENCE

NYMPHING

BASIC WET FLY FISHING

THE AQUATIC INSECTS

THE TERRESTRIAL INSECTS

SURFACE FLIES

FOR BIG FISH TRY STREAMERS

NIGHT MATCHING FOR "OFF" DAYS

READING TROUT WATER

THE INTANGIBLES OF FLY PATTERNS AND WATER

THE RTVER AND THE FLY ROD

FLY LINES

CUSTOM FLY RODS

FLY ROD KITS

SPINNING

HOOKS

TERMINAL RIGS AND SINKERS

104

EQUIPMENT FOR FISHING FLEXIBILITY

108

WILDERNESS FISHING

113

PLUGGING FOR BASS

117

BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING

121

STEELHEAD TO A DRY FLY

130

WINTER STEELHEAD

136

THE FINE ART OF CATFISHING

144

vii

vlii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

27 RAISE YOUR OWN ANGLEWORMS 149

28 AVERAGING Our YOUR FISHING 152

29 MAY THE UNCERTAIN MONTH 155

30 MID-SEASON DRY FLIES 158

31 AUTUMN PANFISHING 162

32 WINTER TROUT STREAMS 165

33 THE FISHERMAN'S NOTEBOOK . . . . . . . . 168

34 BIRDS ALONG A TROUT STREAM 172

35 THE WILD FISHERS 176

36 TAKE A BOY FISHING 187

37 GOOD FISHING BEGINS AT HOME 191

INDEX 195

PRACTICAL

FRESH WATER

FISHING

Upstream worm fishing. The worm is sent through the feeding channels very
much like a dry fly.

Nymphing accounted for this limit.

*>**>

?ifr :; > w-'i ::"": :'::'5'^%^

Strawman

Martinez Black

Stone Ffy TelTico "

Trueblood May Fly Grey Nymph

Burl P Black Beetle

Nymphs

(Flies labeled from left to right, top to bottom.)
Quick', May Fly Caddis Grub Stone Fly Creeper

T , onsc

Trueblood Shrimp Ed Burke

Black Ant Montana Nymph

Ingren's Peacock Atherton Medium

(Courtly of Wayne Buefc, V/sa/ia, California)

HEAVY CREELS

FROM

CROWDED WATERS

Good fishing close to home? Record bass to be taken from seem-
ingly overfished waters? Brown trout waiting on heavily fished
streams for you to finagle them with a properly presented worm or
fly? The answer is a resounding "yes" to all three questionsif your
angling is qualified by a fresh approach to these problems of mod-
ern fishing. Actually, no water is ever fished out by hook and line
alone, regardless of the fishing pressure from an army of present-day
anglers. Conventional methods of angling become exhausted and
:non-productive long before the fish supply is depleted in any water.

Heavily fished rivers and lakes harbor very selective fishr-fish
which are constantly educated to reject the conventional bait, lure,
w fly, and conventional methods of presentation. An angler must
come to these waters with a fresh approach, fish them creatively to
make a creel. That's all. The largest cause of non-productive fishing
is a too close adherence to orthodox methods, fishing by rote as it
were, following blindly the conventional methods of fly casting,
plugging, bait fishing, disregarding the natural presentation and
matching.

4 HEAVY CREELS FROM CROWDED WATERS

A bass carefully tucked in beside a sunken log, rock ledge, or
other natural refuge has witnessed all the conventional methods of
presenting a fly, bass bug, or plug. He has seen just the right match-
ing of naturals over the water canceled out by one or two neglected
details of presentation.

This is just as true of trout, or any other species of fish. Yet this
same bass or trout is constantly spearing an aquatic insect, a ter-
restrial fly, or sampling a hapless frog. This occurs constantly, storm
or shine, and often while an angler's artificial is directly over the
holding water. This discrimination can be turned to good account.
It can be the entering wedge that will break a river or lake wide
open, giving an angler good fishing directly on his home waters.
But he must know every facet of matching to make this possible.

Specifically, an angler must be as critical of his own offering, fly,
worm, or other type lure, as the most educated bass or trout. He
must be able to make a distinction between a fish taking cast and
one which cancels out, before action, or lack of action, endorses or
rejects the effort. But first there must be an angling rebellion
against all that is slip-shod and conventional in fishing. There must
be a stripping away of all clap-trap which passes current for angling
wisdom.

There are problem waters which fishery biologists know require
more fishing pressure than they receive to keep the fish populations
within speaking distance of their food supply. There are more
waters, however, where fishing pressure is heavy, where the fish
are selective in consequence. For better or worse, bright day or
rainy day, an angler must fish waters over which other fishermen
have put, and are putting, their lures constantly. He must touch that
water with something beyond the casual, constant fishing it is sub-
jected to, if he is to be at all successful.

As the politicians say, let's look at the record. Just recently, two
anglers and I fished a bass lake all the local fishermen solemnly
assured us was totally fished out. Nothing worth a fisherman's time
and effort; you know the kind of build-up constantly fished water
gets.

This particular lake, just on the outskirts of a small resort town,
was overcrowded with anglers. The water would scarcely cover

HEAVY CREELS FROM CROWDED WATERS 5

thirty acres, and fifteen boats were on it, the anglers hopefully fish-
ing when we came on the lake in mid-morning. None of them were
boating any fish, so far as I could see.

While my partners arranged for a boat with the resort owner, I
walked along the shallows of the lake, looking at the bottom. It was
literally covered with caddis fly larvae stick cases, good luscious
grubbing for bass. Yet there was no great sign of activity, save for
small fingerling bass which hovered in the shallows. A sample of
muddy bottom showed it crawling with may and stone fly nymphs,
too. I was looking for a basis for matching. I knew that to bring to
life this particular water, or any water for that matter, an angler
must come up with much more than a casual matching.

When my fishing partners secured a boat, and we set up our
fly rods for fishing, there was a lively discussion about the best lure.
Lively, but in agreement about the broad basis this lake afforded
for matching, a complete matching so essential to successful angling
of heavily fished waters. First, we could have been very successful
with nymphs. While at present the lake showed no sign of a hatch
or flight, either of these could be expected. Both weather and water
pointed to such future activity. Under these conditions, any indica-
tion of a hatch, such as an angler can produce by careful casting,
would get attention. The large concentration of nymphs and caddis
fly larvae in the shallows showed that these bass were obviously
conditioned to expect localized hatches, and these could be profit-
ably anticipated by both pattern selection and presentation. A
nymph pattern could have been one answer. But there were several
other answers, too.

We could have used a spinning rod and some of the smaller
plugs, or a casting rod with the larger ones. That would have been
excellent, especially those plugs which had the color and action of a
frog but recently jumped from a lily pad. A deep running shiner
also seemed a good bet. Eventually, however, we rigged with
streamer flies. While one of us manned the oars the others cast,
one in the bow, the other in the stern of the boat, along the marge
of the lily pads, letting these imitations of small fish hover before
all the likely bass hangouts. It worked to perfection, too. That

* HEAVY CREELS FROM CROWDED WATERS

seemingly barren water paid off to the tune of seven bass, none of
them under two pounds, the largest weighing a hefty four pounds.

Our collective thought in selecting those streamer flies was this:
If these waters were fished to the point where they contained an
over-abundance of natural aquatics, these bass would be easier to
entice with minnows. First, they have a natural preference for small
fish life. Second, they claim an exclusive right to a good food station
and resent any smaller fish encroachment, striking viciously at such
intruders. Send a good imitation of a minnow directly into the
hangout of a sizable bass, attend to all the factors of a complete
matching by making that minnow hover, dart, and dance in this
forbidden water, and you will get action fast explosive action, as
our fishing testified.

You have to be selective to make such a matching. You have to
come up with action based on the natural you imitate. You have to
consider, critically, every facet of seasonal attraction which might
move your quarry to activity. And this is something all too few
anglers do. In spring, when streams are pulsing with their winter
runoff, there is only one logical way of making a creel of trout.
A fly in the coffee-colored water is scarcely a rewarding enterprise,
unless one is a purist strictly devoted to this one method of taking
fish. It is much more to the point to be a perfectionist than a purist.
A worm touches more facets of complete matching on a northern
opening day than any other lure.

When spring runoffs fill streams bank full, this flooding cuts away
at their confinement, washing soil into the brown-stained rivers.
Earthworms, grubs, and such are caught up in abundance. These
are carried through natural feeding channels, and slowed in the
backwaters where trout normally lurk during these high water
periods. Match this in every particular in early spring, and I am
betting your results will be the envy of your angling companions,
regardless of overfished waters.

Later, when waters have cleared, there will be times when con-
ditions call for nymphs, wet flies, or dry flies. Whichever you use,
you still must see to the complete matching. Then you will take fish,
plenty of fish, often out of pools crowded with other anglers. I have.

HEAVY CREELS FROM CROWDED WATERS 7

The most amusing angling episode of dlis nature occurs season-
ally on a well fished river where I have always had good luck
making a creel of trout. This particular water has a complement of
large cutthroat trout all summer, contrary to the local angling opin-
ion of those who fish here the entire season without a change in
technique.

Stand at "Red Barn*' pool and look down a quarter mile of stream,
especially on a weekend, and you will see at least twenty-five
anglers. They all have fly rods. They all cast in the same manner,
and most of them use the same fly pattern, a special pattern which
takes very well during the fore part of the season, after the waters
have fallen and cleared a bit. But come midsummer, and this special
pattern is still in use. Worse yet, the same method of fishing is still
complementing this unproductive fly. It all adds up to a lack of
matching, from technique to pattern, and any water worth fishing
deserves much more than that.

During summer, from late June on through August, I make this
stream at least once a week, it being close to home and productive.

Here is the way of the water. There are a number of deep holes,
with a fair ravel of current running over the cobbles between them.
All these riffles are quite shallow enough for wading. During the
early season, most of the trout are taken on these riffles. I say "most"
advisedly, for it is a hard-fished stream, crowded with anglers, and
many fishermen return home with nothing more than a beautiful day
on a river to reward them. But some good trout are always taken
on the green slicks and glides of those riffles during early season
fishing. The river, however, is fished out by mid-June, if you believe
most of the local anglers.

Al Wyman, the exception to this general observation, once told
me, "Most fishermen don't keep up with the season. They are fishing
April when it is already midsummer." This canny old fly fisherman
made the river pay off all during the season with nice catches, as
you might expect.

When the waters fell to their mid-season levels, those trout
moved into the shelter of the blue, deep pools below the riffles
not just any place in the pools, either. When they were passively
feeding, which is all the time except during an active hatch or

8 HEAVY CREELS FROM CROWDED WATERS

flight, you could find them with a good wet fly pattern about ten to
twenty feet from where the fast water headed the pool. They were
usually at a depth of five to seven feet, lurking among the cobbles
and sunken logs, keeping an active eye on any stream bounty car-
ried their way. Here, in wet fly water, they picked up the grasshop-
pers which dropped into the stream constantly, moths attracted by
the shine of water at night, caddis fly larvae swept from their pre-
carious hold in the riffles, stone fly nymphs, may fly nymphs, min-
nows venturing into this forbidden holding water. Again, there was
a broad basis for matching. But matching was a prime requirement-
complete matching.

A nymph pattern, fished deep, from the bottom up, always pro-
duced if an angler sent it in as a natural would be caught and drawn
deep by the breath of current at the head of the pools. The whole
point of the procedure was the narrow requirement of placing that
fly directly in front of the fishes* indifferent noses, in a natural man-
ner, allowing the current to pace your delivery. That is what I did
to take trout here, all during the season. It sounds deceptively sim-
ple, so simple in the telling that some of the nuances of presentation
readily escape an angler, unless he thoroughly tests his concepts by
following through with all facets of a complete matching.

Streams are never static. There is a progressive change all during
the season. This is just as true of lakes and ponds. The biggest
stumbling block to consistently successful angling is not fished-out
rivers or lakes, but the inability of anglers to change with the season.

Remember that brown trout you took from under a small bridge
early in the season? He may have prevented you creeling at least
two dozen nice trout since then. Maybe it would have been much
better if you had never taken him, from the standpoint of later
successful fishing. It all depends; here you are, mid-season what
are you matching, the memory of that big lunker brown, or actual
stream conditions now? Before you answer that, examine your fly
pattern and technique carefully, and the section of stream you are
now fishing. If they have a close resemblance to the fly and the
presentation you used then, and the stream section looks exception-
ally familiar, you are matching a memory, a very unproductive

HEAVY CREELS FROM CROWDED WATERS 9

memory which makes no allowance for change since it paid off in
early spring.

What angling techniques can be salvaged from this episode to
help you in later season fishing? Several. Ask yourself this pertinent
question: why was he there in that particular spot at that particular
time? The favorable factors which kept him there at that particular
time are easily discovered, and they spell success in heavily fished
waters, or any waters for that matter. There is nothing esoteric about
it, nothing which the veriest tyro with a fly rod couldn't tick off, if
he looked beyond the actual, thrilling moments of the episode. That
lunker brown trout was there because that particular spot had more
favorable factors of food and shelter than many others which he
might have occupied, at the time you took him.

He was in position to take any stream bounty normally presented
by the current. He expected that stream bounty to come, water
willed, at a certain velocity, directly down through the feeding
channel he kept under his eye. If you had examined his stomach
contents, you would have found that your fly, or worm, was only
one of many different tidbits he had speared from the current during
the morning. Ten chances to one that stomach contents would have
covered a wide range of caddis fly larvae, may fly nymphs, stone
fly nymphs, small water snails, small trout or minnow which had
inadvertently come into this proscribed water, angleworm washed
into the main current, grubs.

The best trout or bass always occupy the best feeding stations in
a lake or stream. But that doesn't mean the same feeding station, the
same security shelter all during the season. As streams and lakes clear
and fall, the best feeding and security stations change. You must
change with the season or fish a memory of a big trout or bass taken
during the early season.

In addition, you must change your pace. Stream bounty is pre-
sented in a different manner during mid-season than in spring. It is
presented at a different pace. You cannot expect a lake to produce
at the same depth in mid-summer as it did in early spring. And just
as surely your stream pace must be slowed after the early spring
runoff, if you are to carry through successfully.

10 HEAVY CREELS FROM CROWDED WATERS

What has all this to do with taking a creel of trout, bass, crappie,
or other game fish from heavily fished waters? Just this. Successful
angling of such heavily fished waters requires more in the way of
perfect, complete matching, which must take in all factors in getting
your fly, lure, or worm to those well-educated trout or bass. No
segment of this complete matching can be neglected. You must read
water correctly; you must evaluate every nuance of proper fly and
presentation. Then make your cast and wait for the endorsement of
a rise, which is sure to come if nothing is left to chance, and if you
are not trying to make the productive waters of spring still pay off
in mid-season.

On that previously mentioned trout stream, from the Red Barn
pool downstream, those trout, the best the stream afforded, stitt
occupied the most favorable feeding stations, but not the same ones
they occupied earlier in the season. The largest trout, waiting at the
foot of the riffles, had a more leisurely current from which to pick
a living. The exigency of water temperature and security kept them
at a depth of about four or five feet, sometimes more. But they were
always within striking distance of anything carried through their
feeding stations provided the presentation and matching touched
all facets of the seasonal, natural delivery.

I knew three anglers who were consistently successful from early
spring on through the season on this river. These successful anglers
were just as successful fishing local lakes for bass. Their entire
angling philosophy could be summarized with just a few words: be
natural, be flexible, be different. But summarizing their attitude,
which always produced good fishing on these heavily fished waters,
and becoming capable of applying their angling philosophy takes
time and study. This is the basis of this book. You begin with angle-
worms in spring, you turn to nymphs as the season advances, then
basic wet fly fishing. You study the aquatic and terrestrial flies and
their larvae and nymphs, the flights and hatches. Then you turn to
dry flies and streamers. You end with careful consideration of equip-
ment and techniques required to be natural, flexibk, different. Then
you take fish, shine or shower, on home stream or wilderness river
or lake. You cannot ask for more than this. You should not settle
for less.

The overturned creel indicates the success of one vacation angler near Bend,
Oregon. (Oregon State Highway Commission)

The author's hat. A complete matching starts with a wide selection of flies,
streamers, and nymphs to meet any change in weather or water.

The proper method of putting a worm on a hook, with no part of the worm
left dangling. Note, too, the perfect nymph matching.

THE HUMBLE WORM-
WITH A DIFFERENCE

When a trout stream pulses with high, discolored water during
early spring, worms are more productive than conventional flies.
Even later in the season a worm, properly fished, has possibilities
seldom realized by anglers who have not had wide experience with
this method of fishing. Many anglers feel that worming is an inferior
method of fishing. This attitude, however, cannot be supported on
a trout stream. Worming is as much an art as dry fly fishing and
requires just as much finesse. Its simplicity is deceptive.

This seeming simplicity of worm fishing makes the technique
appear easy to learn. In reality, it is not an easily mastered art. The
only effective way of fishing a worm is with a fly rod and a com-
paratively long leader. The fly rod should be 8 to 8& feet in length,
weighing about 4 to 4K ounces. Its action should be soft enough so
that even the slightest touch of a trout can be translated into a strike.

In worming, your fly line should be floated, but at the same time
you must fish deep. It seems almost a contradiction in terms to say
that one should float his line and fish deep, but it is the only method
which will give a deep drift without drag and that is essential in
worm fishing, almost as much so as if you were drifting a dry fly.

Depth is obtained by the use of 9- to 12-foot leaders. These
should be tapered to a 2X or 3X tippet. Few streams will require

12 THE HUMBLE WORMWITH A DIFFERENCE

leaders longer than 9 feet to get your worm down on the gravel, but
there will be occasions, on some of the larger streams, when the
12-foot leader must be used.

Leaders should not be any heavier in the butt sections than
required to turn over properly in casting. A too-heavy butt prevents
the leader and worm from being "water willed" during the flshout
after the cast. Proper worming leaders should respond to the pull
and drag of the current in a natural manner. The worm cannot show
leader drag and be effective. It must be carried into the feeding
stations as naturally as an unencumbered worm washed into the
stream.

The heavy spring runoff of water on a trout stream sends the
natural food tumbling along the bottom. It is concentrated in the
eddies and backwaters, where it is slowed and held captive for
feeding trout. This points up a definite technique for fishing a worm.

After a light leader has been selected because it is more respon-
sive to the current, it hardly makes sense to weigh the leader down
and kill its action with a large number of worms the usually recom-
mended procedure. The most effective method is to use only a
small piece of night crawler or angleworm, just sufficient to cover the
hook. Thread this piece directly on the hook. Some anglers hook the
worm through the collar and let it hang below the point of the
hook, but I have found this method ineffective. It doesn't cast well,
and time after time trout will strip the bait from the hook without
being caught.

Many anglers use a large hook for worm fishing; but here, again,
I go contrary to accepted practice. A large hook, like a large worm,
often kills the action of the bait. A size 4 or 5 hook is about tops.
It should be at least 3X long. Sometimes, when the current is slowed
and the water is clear, a size 10 or 12 hook with a 5X leader tippet
is the most effective terminal rig when using a worm.

One season, during a heavy storm, I took a limit of trout from a
discolored, high-water stream after my flies had failed. This stream,
typical of many Northern trout waters, responded readily to my
worming technique. I waded along the shallows and shot my fly
line upstream and across. The current carried my worm into the

THE HUMBLE WORM WITH A DIFFERENCE 13

natural feeding channels, and time after time I came up solidly
against a good fish.

This type of sharpshooting requires just as much accuracy as dry
fly fishing. You must get your worm in at the head of the runs and
slicks so that it is carried without drag down through the feeding
channels. You must put it in at those spots where the current turns
down, so it will be carried deep. At times, when you have only a
small spot of slowed water behind a large boulder for your target,
you must cast a slack line, just as you would in dry fly fishing, to
keep your worm from being pulled out of position before it is
carried deep.

Drag is not as important in worming as in dry fly fishing, but it
can never be disregarded. Drag can Mil the action of a worm by
pulling it across the current, or by holding it too firmly against the
current. This is especially true of those problem trout waters which
are just beginning to fall and clear. At such times they are not quite
low and clear enough for effective fly fishing, but unless they are
fished with finesse, they are a bit too low for good worming.

The best streams for early-season worm fishing are usually the
smaller tributaries of the main rivers. Trout tend to move into these
smaller streams while the water is high, so they are your best places
on opening day when you are fishing worms. Smaller streams have
another advantage in that they are not so crowded as the better-
known waters are during the first few days of the season.

Even at the expense of reiteration, there are three essential fac-
tors in successful worm fishing. Find a deep drift which will get the
worm down close to the bottom, be sure to change the bait often,
and fish slowly.

It is well known that any bait creates scent slick in the water.
Cat fishermen, of course, know this as well as they know their own
names, but trout fishermen are not so aware of this angling truth.
Yet scent slick is a very important factor in taking early season trout
with worms.

Once a bait has been used for a short while, the scent is dissi-
pated. Then, as an attraction for trout, you have only the size and
shape of the worm. While both size and shape are important, you
will immeasurably increase your chances of making a catch if you

14 THE HUMBLE WORM WITH A DIFFERENCE

change bait often enough to keep a good scent slick in the pools and
eddies. If you fish deep and upstream, sending your worm down
through the feeding channels, that scent slick always announces its
coming.

Have you noticed that you usually fish a pool for quite some time
before getting your first strike when using a worm? After that first
strike you may get two or three in rapid succession. These you can
attribute directly to the scent your fresh bait has created in the
water. Those fish, attracted by scent, would have searched for and
found your baited hook even though it was lying on the bottom, so
silted over as to be completely hidden.

Fishing slowly with a worm gives the trout time to unravel the
scent trace and find your baited hook. Too-fast coverage of a pool
will lose you the benefit of the scent your worm has been creating
in the water. For just as you are about to capitalize on it, you cancel
out your success by moving to another pool.

As you can see, it requires plenty of thought and imagination. It
requires stream knowledge, trout knowledge, and it responds to
keen observation and careful technique as fully as does dry fly
fishing. Anglers who think worm fishing is a rather primitive way of
taking trout are missing some very good opening-day sport.

But worming has its part to play later in the season too. When
a country boy, so beloved by magazine cartoonists, comes lugging
that huge, old lantern-jawed trout by a visiting sportsman, he has
good angling logic behind his success. That outsized trout has fallen
for something different a. country boy's worm.

For the past several months that huge trout has been subjected
to a constant barrage of flies by reasonably competent fly fishermen.
They have been at his door all season, as persistent as Fuller Brush
salesmen. Then along comes this boy with his well-baited hook. He
is no purist, but he is loaded with good angling technique. He leans
over the grassy bank of that meadow stream, and scarcely makes a
dimple on the water as he carefully presents his worm, directly to
the hideout of that big, shy trout.

The results are inevitable, for here is delicacy and angling know-
how. And here also is the best natural bait for trout or bass, if it is
fished properly. An angler should never consider a river as being

THE HUMBLE WORM WITH A DIFFERENCE 15

dormant until the water has been tested with worms, not casually,
but with all the finesse which can be brought to the fishing.

Take the time Grant Hartwell and I fished the Klamath River for
those big outsized rainbows. Late autumn it was, with the river but
recently opened for those big lunkers which nose their way up
toward Klamath Lake for the fall spawning. Just above Copco Dam,
at Keno, Oregon, we could see them top and roll in the rough water,
but nothing we had in the way of flies interested them in the least.
True, we got two or three surface bunts on Royal Coachman buck-
tails huge rainbows breaking the surface to leave a ring of disturbed
water as testimony to their momentary presence, and that was all.

I fished dry, I fished wet, I even tried a nymph or two, but it was
no go. Then, rummaging around in my fishing jacket for a fly rod
wobbler, my hand touched this small can. I remembered (some-
thing I always pick up at my sporting goods store just in case)
worms, perhaps a dozen carefully packed in wet moss. I brought it
out, pried off the lid, and retrieved a worm. He was lively and full
of go, none the worse for having been confined for several days of
our fishing trip.

Twenty-sk minutes later I slipped my fingers into the gills of a
twenty-two inch rainbow, one so large I didn't trust my landing net
to bring him ashore. Grant had quit fishing the moment he saw me
standing on a driftwood log, my rod almost bent double, with the
tip pointing into the turbulence of the riffle. He stood there in the
shallows waving a landing net, beyond the stage of giving advice.

After I managed to land my trout more by good luck than actual
skill for it was a rough piece of water we fished Grant came up
with the inevitable question, "What fly?'* I handed him the worm
can. I think I detected a questioning look on his sun-tanned face, a
sort of "Is this cricket for a rainbow of that size to reject all our flies
then fall for a worm?" But maybe I was mistaken. Maybe he just
wondered where the worms came from, me being such an avid fly
fisherman. Here is how we managed to catch that first rainbow, and
how we each managed to finagle three others, though none were
quite so large as my first one.

We used a 3X tippet in the clear summer water, spliced out four
feet beyond the taper. The hook was size 8, 2X Stout, 2X Long

16 THE HUMBLE WORM WITH A DIFFERENCE

heavy enough, if presented properly, to carry the offering down
through the feeding channels without additional split shot which
might kill the natural presentation. We cast upstream and slightly
across, sharpshooting those small green slicks of water where boul-
ders momentarily slowed the current. The worm would sink for a
space of a moment or two before the current washed the slack out
of the fly line and pulled it out of position. But usually, before this
occurred, we got a vicious strike. Frequently these were misses by
over-eager trout. But they managed to spear our offerings often
enough to make two beautiful creels of trout in our last two hours of

evening fishing.

Next day we returned at the dawn hour, and sharpshooting those
small green slicks in the lee of the boulders, we got a repeat per-
formance. When we abandoned worms and returned to flies, working
the same water, we raised a few fish. Searching for a reason for this,
we arrived at an obvious conclusion.

Those fish were nymphing, and our worms, threaded so as just
to cover the small hooks, made a perfect matching nymph. Our
method of fishing worms not only matched the underwater life in
form, but also matched it in presentation. Those trout were using
the backwaters as feeding stations, and they were not venturing far
out in the swift current of the riffle to take any offering. Wouldn't
an artificial nymph have served? No. And for the simple reason that
you cannot get the aliveness, the sheen in an artificial you have in a
natural. Light does things to a natural which is the despair of an
angler fishing an artificial.

Under certain water conditions you can approach the natural
nymph with your matching artificial. You can further this matching
by proper presentation. But you cannot go all the way in your
matching, if your quarry is on a highly selective spree, like those big
rainbows were that autumn day on the Klamath. That takes worms.

I have had repeat performances on this nymphing with a worm
on many other rivers. Sometimes, when the waters are low and clear,
a worm fished as a nymph with a fine twelve-foot leader, and a small
size 12 hook, pays off. Fishing a worm under these circumstances
hinges on delicacy of presentation. Keep that fly line clear of the
holding water just as carefully as if the stream called for a number

THE HUMBLE WORM WITH A DIFFERENCE 17

14 dry fly. You must curve cast. You must avoid any suggestion of
drag. And you must put your offering in the feeding channel, making
it water willed in action. Such working of your rod as you do,
should be to bring the worm from top to bottom in the erratic
manner of a surfacing nymph. That is worm fishing in a nutshell
from the first spring hatch until autumn.

Most anglers, turning to a worm for the first time, abandon their
usual skillful fly fishing technique. They feel that the worm doesn't
justify the delicacy with which they fish flies. That is a mistake.
A worm calls for all the refinement that can be brought to its fishing.
After all, except in early spring, it is usually the last resort after flies
have failed to produce.

NYMPH ING

Before every hatch manifest for a short while on a river, there is
a much longer under water period of activity when trout respond
eagerly to a carefully fished nymph fly pattern.

As you probahly know, a nymph is an underwater stage in the
development of aquatic insects such as the may flies, stone flies,
midges, and alder flies. A list of aquatic flies which go through the
nymph stage is of course much more extensive than this, but those
I have mentioned are what an angler has in mind when he is using
a nymph fly. One must also include the caddis fly larva, though
technically speaking it is not a nymph.

This period before the hatch of aquatic flies takes place will be
most productive. But it must be pinpointed from the many not-too-
obvious indications on the stream. If you are to fish nymph flies
successfully, you must first visualize what takes place beneath the
surface before a heavy hatch gets under way.

Immediately before a hatch there is terrific activity below the
surface. Nymphs leave the bottom portion of the stream and swim
free in the current. Already a few are coming to the surface to break
their wing cases, and others crawl up the sides of rocks and snags to
become air-borne. The procedure varies slightly according to spe-
cies, but it all adds up to some wonderful angling.

Conditions which bring about a hatch of aquatics are written
early in the day. When a day in mid-April begins warm, and there

NYMPHING 19

is a late June feel to the air, change to nymphs. The slight increase
in stream temperature almost always touches off a cycle of nymph
activity. If you find a few insects hovering over the water, so much
the better. But the best indication, other than the weather itself, is
that you are having poor success with conventional wet or dry flies.
At such times, watch the stream closely and more than likely you
will see "tailing trout." This occurrence is frequently misleading,
unless you are very observant, because it can very easily be mistaken
for trout rising to spear some insect on the surface. A tailing trout,
however, is working nymphs directly over the gravel. In his eager-
ness, he often slaps the surface with his tail, giving all indications
of a rise.

The best portion of a stream in which to fish nymph flies varies
with the season. Shallow waters have much greater nymph activity
during the early season. (For winter conditions, see Chapter 29.)
This larger concentration of aquatic insect life in the shallows is
caused by their warmth. As the season advances, there is more activ-
ity in deeper portions of the stream, and the deepest sections are the
last to warm sufficiently to encourage nymph activity.

Some entomologists maintain that nymphs move all over the
bottom, and that there couldn't be concentrations at different water
levels. But the fact remains that fishermen find hatches coming
progressively from deeper and deeper water as the season advances.
The shallows which were loaded with nymphs during the early
season become barren, while heavy hatches are still coming from
the deeper pools.

May flies are a good example. Hatches occur early in April on
some streams some are late in October. On Trinity River in Califor-
nia, steelhead stomach contents have shown both adult may flies
and nymphs as late as mid-October. If you were laying a fly line
across those pools, fishing a nymph pattern, your success in early
spring would be in proportion to the amount of shallow water you
covered tails of pools, shallow runs, and such. But as the season
progresses you would eventually find your fish, and aquatic food
supply, concentrated in the deeper water.

One world-famous hatch of large golden bodied may flies occurs
on Ten Mile Lake in southwestern Oregon. Anglers come from all

20 NYMPHING

parts of the country to fish this hatch. Many come early for the
nymph fishing, which is always at it best before the hatches occur.
If you come, let your boat drift in the lee of the fir-clad shore line,
within good casting distance of the cattails, and drop your nymph
close in toward the shallows. That's the place for mid-May nymph
fishing. But if you should return in June, lengthen your leader to a
fine 12-foot gut tapered to 4X or so. Drop your nymph pattern well
out from shore and allow your fly to drift down through the depths.
Wait a minute, two, five better make it ten minutes. When that
long, fine leader has straightened out and is pointing directly down-
ward from your floating line, venture a slight working of your rod
tip. But you can easily overdo this working. Successful nymph
fishing is predicated on delicacy. Move your nymph surfaceward
about six inches; let it sink again then wait. Work it again slightly
after a brief pause. \

That is about all there is to deep-water nymph fishing. But it
does produce results on streams as well as on lakes, long after most
anglers have abandoned nymphing for the season. Quite often, it
is your one best bet for taking trout from mid-season to autumn.
Notice the similarity to fishing with a worm? Both worm fishing and
nymphing touch on a basic angling technique. Certain methods of
wet fly fishing also fall within this basic pattern, too, as we shall
see later.

Two other methods of nymphing must be touched upon to round
out the picture. One, which is advocated by many angling writers,
has been the least successful for me; the other, a very productive
method for me, is simply the adaptation of deep-water nymph
fishing to early-season angling, when the larger concentration of
nymphs are in the shallow portions of streams.

The least successful method is to cast a nymph pattern as you
would a conventional wet fly, hoping that full water coverage will
touch some productive spots in the stream. The angler casts across
the pool at the tail and makes complementing casts to fill in above
this until he has covered most of the water. The line is floated, and
both the line and most of the leader (except about twelve inches of
tippet) are dressed. This technique of dressing the line and most of

NYMPH1N6 21

the leader is the only thing worth salvaging from such a haphazard
method of nymph fishing.

A more productive method is to dress the line and leader as
outlined above, then work only those portions of the stream which
presently hold the larger concentrations of nymphs. That is good
common sense. Precious angling time should not be spent on unpro-
ductive water. Fish the shallows first As spring advances and the
water warms, lengthen the undressed portion of your leader and fish
the deeper water. Eventually, you will find yourself touching the
deepest sections of the stream.

When you do fish your nymph pattern deep, put it in as you did
your early-season worm. It should come down through the feeding
channels in a natural manner, simulating a nymph or caddis larva
dislodged and carried by the current. Such naturals will struggle
feebly, so work your rod tip easily. For it all adds up to a complete
matching of the natural you are imitating.

The least important part of nymphing is the pattern, which is
always subordinate to proper presentation. Yet more wet fly patterns
are taken because they resemble nymphs than for any other reason.
It is not without significance that many wet fly patterns, even such
fancy ones as a Royal Coachman, are successful in proportion to
their well-worn, ruffled appearance.

I have seen wise old anglers drop a new wet fly pattern in the
mud and very methodically rub silt into the wings and body before
using it. It is not improbable that roughing up a fly in this manner
makes it appear like a nymph to a trout.

I say the nymph pattern is the least important part of nymph
fishing, but this should be qualified somewhat A nymph pattern, it
seems to me, doesn't have to be an exact imitation of, say, a may fly
nymph. The chief requirement is that it have some of the charac-
teristics of all nymph life found in the stream. The complete match-
ing must always include proper presentation. I would much rather
know that I am sending my nymph pattern down through the feed-
ing channels, exactly as a natural would come, than to know that my
artificial nymph matched the natural nymph in every respect. There
is a broad field for experiment in tying nymph patterns; the subject
has scarcely been touched. We need more fly tyers who are directly

22 NYMPHING

concerned with our American streams and profoundly interested in
nymphing.

My most successful pattern is a white "midge." It doesn't resem-
ble any one type of nymph life, but it does appear to resemble, in
small part, just about every type of nymph life f ound on the bottom
of the trout streams I fish. As tied by Wayne Buszek, Visalia,
California, it is dressed as follows: body white spun fur, very full;
wings none; tail none; hackle white, clipped very short. Best hook
sizes 10's and 12's. Other good patterns are the Hendrickson
Nymph, Stone Fly Creeper, March Brown Nymph, Ray Bergman
Caddis Worm, Iron Blue Nymph, and Strawman.

There is a wet fly pattern, the Burlap, which started out in life
as a steelhead fly. I have found this pattern, when tied with a num-
ber 10 hook, to be an excellent nymph. This fly, which had its
inception on California's mighty Klamath River, is tied as follows:
for the body, a strand of burlap is wrapped so that it appears seg-
mented; for the tail, a wisp of grey squirrel tail is placed along the
hook and the body wrapped over it, leaving a dozen strands or so
protruding. The hackle is also squirrel fur, turned back at the eye of
the hook and flared and clipped. A brown head is built up of tying
thread to complete the pattern. It is a homely fly, but in the water
that flared, clipped hackle becomes alive. The whole appearance is
that of a caddis fly larva, stick case and all.

In fishing nymphs, one invariably gets around to considering
proper rods. During the past decade there had been a tendency on
the part of some angling authorities to solve all fly rod problems by
using fast-action rods. Both wet fly fishing and nymphing have
suffered as a consequence of this. A fast rod, with most of the action
centered forward, hasn't the delicacy of feeling it should have for
nymph fishing. To be sure, it can be used for nymphing, but a fair
percentage of strikes will go unnoticed because the dry fly action
is not responsive enough to translate those whisper touches into a
strike when you must fish by feel alone.

The best rod for nymph fishing is one 8 or 9 feet long, weighing
from 3 S A to 454 ounces. It should have a "parabolic" action, as
exemplified by Paul H. Young, of Detroit, Michigan, and other top-

NYMPHING 23

grade craftsmen. Under stress, the action of a proper nymphing rod
should flex all the way to the cork.

Another consideration favoring a soft-action rod in nymphing is
the fine gut tippet which must be used. Let a 16- or 18-inch trout
strike solidly, as they do on occasion, especially when nymph fishing
very deep, and a 3X or 4X tippet is often snapped if a dry fly, fast-
action rod is used.

In nymph fishing, as in most angling, the fisherman who comes
home with a heavy creel is the one who meets the challenge of
nymphing with imagination. You eitiber become an expert nymph
fisherman or you abandon nymphing for the less exacting methods
of fly fishing. There certainly are no half-way measures.

BASIC

WET FLY FISHING

An angler must be capable of bold experiment and subtlety to
realize the full potential of wet fly fishing. Wet fly fishing is three-
dimensional angling, with plenty of room for the finer nuances of
fly fishing in all its phases. There are times when it is closely allied
to the dry fly method; there are times when it is closely related to
nymph fishing, and there are other times when its technique is a
combination of both dry fly fishing and nymphing. There is never
a time when the method requires less than the best from an angler.

Let's start with the wet fly itself. And let's consider it from the
viewpoint of a trout on feeding station, either waiting for stream
bounty to be carried to it or actively foraging through the pools and
backwaters. A trout tests and rejects supposed food items by taking
them into its mouth. That action indicates a basic method of fishing
a wet fly, both in the presentation and the pattern size. In fast water,
a trout has little time in which to make up its mind about a food
item. The current sweeps the real or the supposed food within reach
of the feeding station, then as rapidly sends it past. That means
the proper pace in your wet fly fishing on this type of water. And
pace, like presentation, is always a part of the complete matching.

If a trout is not on a particular feeding station, but is actively
foraging about the full confines of a pool, it will follow a fly or

BASIC WET FLY FISHING 25

other attraction much farther, but is much more critical of the
offering. It is apt to reject a fly without taking it into its mouth,
depending on the size of the fly pattern. Bits of flotsam and jetsam
come under this careful scrutiny, as well as the natural aquatics and
terrestrials.

If there is a suggestion of a forthcoming hatch, or evidence of a
recent hatch, that must be taken into consideration. You cannot
pinpoint a trout's actions to the immediate present. His action now
must be deduced from what has occurred over the past several
hours. A hatch or the memory of a hatch affects your pattern in
three ways. First, it indicates basic color; second, it indicates form;
and third, it indicates presentation. Touch the memory of a hatch
with those three basic factors in your wet fly and you take fish.

Let's measure this theory against the stream itself.

Aquatic and terrestrial insects delivered to a feeding station have
been swept into the main current from above. Their own feeble
struggles and swimming efforts are not enough to overcome the
sweep of the onrushing water. They are carried downstream still
exhibiting life swimming, moving, trying to adjust themselves to
the surging water. Inevitably, they are brought within range of a
waiting trout.

Progressively, here is how they appear to the trout. First, as
shadowed movements upstream. Second, as color patterns turning
end to end, surfacing, driven deep, head-on, end-on, side view. All
this is momentarily suggested in the bubble-shot water, but never
distinctly. The most consistent element of identification is color.

When trout take bits of flotsam and jetsam into their mouths
before rejecting them, they do so because of color pattern associa-
tions. The items they mouth have the color of familiar food items.
Form is perhaps the least important phase of fly pattern appearance
for the obvious reason that it is the smallest part of the identifying
whole.

Natural insects, being swept into the main channels from the
shallows and heads of pools, are concentrated at the feeding sta-
tions. These concentrations indicate a presentation in which all
three factors of color, form, and pace go to make up the complete
matching.

26 BASIC WET FLY FISHING

It is a positive presentation. You drop your pattern at those points
where the current accepts it. You fish out the cast by allowing the
water to bring your pattern toward the concentration points of the
stream in a natural manner very much as you would fish a nymph
pattern.

Contrast this with a negative presentation. The tyro wet fly
angler will cast quartering downstream, then work his fly up against
the current. This is contrary to the normal delivery of natural insects
which condition a trout's reaction to the artificial offering. At times
this may be fair technique for a streamer fly, but for any pattern
trying for a complete matching of aquatic or terrestrial insects it is
a very poor method of presentation. Trout and bass are taken by
such slipshod angling, but such success is predicated on color and
form, without a complementing presentation. Only two parts of the
perfect matching are present, and to that extent the angler is not
realizing the full fish-taking potential of the cast.

Presentation must always be a full imitation of either an aquatic
or a terrestrial insect, depending on which you are imitating with
your wet fly pattern at the moment. While both types of insect have
the same basic reaction to the water, there are subtle nuances of
differences. Terrestrials come into the stream from the surface;
aquatics are usually torn from the bottom. The exception to this is
the imago hatches of the may fly. Both terrestrials and aquatics,
however, are eventually brought to the concentration points in the
channels where fish take up their feeding stations.

A wet fly pattern imitating an aquatic should be put in at the
head of the pool, not because it will look less like the aquatic it
imitates if it is dropped somewhere else, but because this is the one
point in the stream where it can follow the course a natural aquatic
would take. It is the one point from which you are assured of touch-
ing water where fish are concentrated. A terrestrial fly or imitation,
while it must enter those concentration points to be successful, can
be put in from the surface at almost any place toward the head of a
pool. It can be delivered as a sinking fly, because it is a bit less
active than the aquatic. But it must be sent progressively deeper, as
the cast is fished out, if it is to achieve a complete matching of the
natural terrestrials.

BASIC WET FLY FISHING 27

There is little evidence to substantiate the theory that a wet fly
pattern which is an exact imitation of a natural is more effective
than an implied form. No natural is rejected if, before reaching an
actively feeding trout, the heavy water disrupts its appearance. I
have taken grasshoppers, dropped them piecemeal into a trout
stream, and watched the hungry fish spear each segment. I have
done the same with may flies, caddis flies, and stone flies.

Color suggests form to both trout and bass. Size complicates this
to some extent, however. A large fly needs to be more of an exact
imitation of its natural counterpart than does the smaller pattern.

Watch trout taking and rejecting bits of stream flotsam. They
never bother to give the larger bits of drift more than a casual
examination before turning away, but they must take those smaller
pieces of drift into their mouth for a decision. If you watch closely,
you will see that in fast water the line of demarcation is drawn at
about a size 10 fly. Drift larger than a size 10 fly is rejected after
visual examination, but drift smaller than this must be tested by
mouthing.

As the current is slowed, visual rejection drops down the scale
until a 12 or 14 size is rejected without mouthing. In slow water a
wet fly of size 16, or not larger than 14 at most, will take the most
fish when all elements of complete matching are present Obviously,
the rate of current movement governs the size of wet fly which can
be used successfully. You can increase the size of your pattern for
the swifter portions of a stream, but you cannot go much above a
size 10 except for some very special occasions.

When trout or bass hide out in fairly heavy water, and must
move into an exposed position to take the offering, they are much
less critical. They move fast, strike solidly, and turn quickly back
toward their shelters. They evaluate the offering from a distance of
several feet and move swiftly, once they decide to take.

What patterns for wet fly fishing? Other than a few special pat-
terns used when matching midseason terrestrials, here are the ones
which have proven most successful for me, season after season:
March Brown, Professor, Blue Quill, Bread Crust, Grey Hackle
Yellow, Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear, Royal Coachman Bucktail, Stone
Fly, Zaddach, Black Gnat, Quill Gordon, and Burlap.

28 BASIC WET FLY FISHING

Go through this list and you will find five or six colors repeated
in the different patterns. There are black, natural red, several shades
of gray, and yeflow. See how the colors of stream naturals are con-
stantly repeated in each pattern. Color combinations even go beyond
the natural which the fly is supposed to represent. For example, a
March Brown fly pattern not only suggests an early may fly (S.
vtearium) but also has color elements of a stone fly in its make-up.

THE AQUATIC
INSECTS

The aquatic insect life of lake and stream makes a fascinating
study. Whether you fish bluegill, crappie, bass, or trout, a knowl-
edge of the relationship between the aquatics and your quarry is the
very stuff of full creels. Entomology and angling know-how make
an unbeatable combination. At times, with a hatch of may flies over
the water, it is much more interesting to watch the reaction of fish
to the occurrence than to match the hatch. But when you do fish,
back of the fly you are using and the angling method you employ,
there should be the sure knowledge which always produces fish.

Most typical of the aquatic insects, and the ones which anglers
fish over most often, are the may flies (Ephemeridae). Hatches of
these aquatics begin with the first warm spring days and continue
all summer, well up into autumn. On the rivers I fish, may flies first
begin to emerge when the dogwood is in full bloom in late April.
I have them with me until autumn frost touches the maples with
gold along the rivers.

Two types of hatches occur, the sub-imago and the imago
hatches. The sub-imago hatch is the emerging of the aquatic from
the nymph stage, and always leads to wonderfully productive dry-
fly fishing. The imago hatch is a returning to the water of adult
aquatic insects to deposit eggs.

30 THE AQUATIC INSECTS

In the case of may flies, the sub-imago hatch are called duns, and
those returning to the water to deposit eggs are called spinners.
From the standpoint of good angling, spinners are not nearly so
attractive as the duns. The female may fly, after depositing her
eggs, is slim fare indeed for a hungry bass or trout. More often than
not they are not greatly relished by fish. But there is one exception
to this which must be noted. The green drakes, often called coffin
flies in the spinner stage, are readily taken by trout. Only the female
coffin fly, however, is considered a tidbit; the male is ignored
completely.

There is a case of selectivity here which is interesting. The only
difference between the female coffin fly, on which trout feed avidly,
and the male coffin fly, which they reject, is a matter of minor color-
ing. The female fly has a slight yellow cast and the male shows
traces of white. Please note that the distinction is not based on form,
but color. Except for that little difference of color, one could be
convinced that an exact imitation of the coffin fly was indicated.
In this instance trout are selective, but only as to color.

The spinner stage of may flies is not usually productive. I have
seen an imago hatch of small blue may flies literally covering a
series of pools without a trout being actively interested. But the
sub-imago hatch of this same small blue may fly is something else
again. Then, on the same pools I have seen as many as two dozen
rainbows rising.

Drop a dry fly in there, of the proper size and color, and you get
action at once. After landing your fish, if you examine its stomach
contents, you will find both may flies and nymphs, showing that
these actively feeding trout are directly responsive to two different
methods of fishing. Often, when this hatch is just beginning, I have
taken a limit by fishing the occurrence with a nymph pattern.

May fly nymphs shed their cases several times before their final
transformation to adult, winged insects. How often this happens
depends on water temperatures and available food. Obviously, as
the water warms towards the point where there will be hatches, the
size of the most effective nymph pattern must be increased if one
is to match both size and color. The best method of keeping closely

THE AQUATIC INSECTS 31

informed on this phase of angling is to collect abandoned nymph
cases.

Some may flies break their wing cases on the water surface, as
they emerge from the nymph stage and rest for a moment with wings
upright to dry before taking off in awkward flight. Other may fly
nymphs crawl out on projecting rocks and snags to complete this
metamorphosis. You will often see their abandoned nymph cases in
such places after the sub-imago hatch.

Once free of their nymph cases, may flies flutter to nearby trees
and bushes where they again shed an outer covering. They may
cling to the trees and bushes for as much as twenty-four hours before
returning to the stream as spinners to deposit eggs.

May flies cannot be recognized from size alone. Some are
extremely tiny, others are great golden-colored insects fully an inch
long. The simplest clue to their identity is their long tails, which are
easily seen in flight. The tails are long hair-like filaments, usually
two or three in number.

Next to may flies, an angler's most important aquatic insect
family is the caddis flies or sedges (Trichoptera). Caddis flies are
easily recognized. They have very distinctive antennae, often as long
as the body itself. The wings are rounded and are held tent-like over
the body. Unlike the may flies, they have no tails.

The female caddis fly crawls into the water to lay her eggs,
which hatch as caddis fly larvae, not nymphs as is the case with may
flies. A caddis fly larva builds itself a case from bits of wood, gravel,
and other material. These cases are often noticed in the backwaters
and shallows of trout streams. Frequently, in opening trout, bits of
gravel and tiny pieces of wood are found in the stomach contents,
evidence that they have been feeding on caddis fly larvae.

One of the best nymph patterns for a caddis fly larva is the
Strawman. When streams show an abundance of caddis fly "stick
cases" in the shallows and backwaters, this pattern is very produc-
tive. When there is an actual hatch, or (to be technically correct) a
flight of caddis flies over the water, I have had wonderful success
with the Breadcrust and Brown Bi-Visible dry fly patterns, in sizes
12 and 14.

32 THE AQUATIC INSECTS

The stone fly is another important aquatic insect which is quite
common on almost all trout and bass waters. Stone flies (Plecoptera)
are very easily recognized in flight. They hold their bodies almost
vertical in the air, which makes them appear very awkward. A
further identifying mark is their two distinct sets of wings.

Stone flies drop their eggs on the water and are often observed
awkwardly hovering over the pools for this purpose. The eggs hatch
into nymphs and go through the same incomplete metamorphosis
as do the may flies.

May flies, caddis flies, and stone flies are the three most impor-
tant aquatic insect families from the standpoint of the fly fisherman.
They are important as nymphs and larva, and as adults. They have
been the object of more fly patterns than any other species.

Midges, while secondary to these main aquatic insect hatches,
afford a lot of good fly fishing. The word "midge' 7 is all-inclusive,
covering about all those small aquatics often seen hovering over the
pools from early season on through until autumn. Matching them
sometimes leads an angler to the very limits of practical size in fly
patterns. Often it takes a tiny size 16 or 18 hook for a careful
matching.

When an angler turns to these small patterns in an attempt to
match such tiny naturals, the effort can easily be canceled out by
improper leaders. Never drop down to smaller-size flies without a
corresponding drop in leader tippets. I doubt if it is good technique
to fish a size 12 or smaller fly with less than a 4X or 5X leader tippet.

Leaders must also be lengthened as the size of the fly is reduced.
Reduction of fly size is not alone predicated on an exact matching
of a tiny natural, but on delicacy of presentation also. To this end,
leader butts must be as small as is consistent with a proper turnover
in casting, and leader length should not be less than 12 feet.

The essential factor in matching the natural aquatics of a stream
is to make the matching complete.

Aquatic insects are only part of the seasonal stream food of fish.
In order to have a well-rounded knowledge, a careful study of
terrestrial insects should also be made. Terrestrials play an increas-
ingly important part in all fly fishing as the streams fall and clear,
from mid-season on until autumn.

THE TERRESTRIAL
INSECTS

It was a late mid- July morning when this rainbow trout struck
my black, nondescript fly solidly. I played and landed Timi after ten
minutes of vicious battling which churned the pool to foam. I had
used an even dozen different patterns before he came to this wet
fly pattern, all 18 inches of him rolling over the fly in a classic take.

The season was far enough advanced so that radical new stream
conditions were becoming increasingly manifest. Terrestrial insects
were making their presence felt. Fly patterns which were productive
only a few short days before seemed to be losing their attraction.
The fly which brought that nice 18-inch rainbow out from behind a
sunken log was not a fancy creation. But in its simple design there
were elements which suggested one of the most important orders of
terrestrial insects.

My fly had a black chenille body with a ribbing of gold tinsel.
For wings, I had used black hackle tips. There was also a sparse
black hackle, tied from a very soft feather. Looking at the finished
creation, you might have said, "wood ant.** When I opened my trout
to examine its stomach contents that was the answer. The rainbow
was loaded with black-winged wood ants. Those ants had fallen
into the stream during their mating flight, as that is the only time

34 THE TERRESTRIAL INSECTS

they are winged. Immediately after the mating flight they lose their
wings.

Five other trout followed this one in short order, but none was
quite as large as my first one. Nothing had suggested a flight of ants
that mid- July morning. Besides, it is their nature to emerge for their
mating flights late in the evening, or during a warm summer night.
The only explanation of this pattern's popularity, as I see it, is that
those trout retained a memory of a feeding period at least twelve
hours or more past. They took my fly because the matching touched
upon that memory.

I quit fishing at one o'clock to eat a belated sandwich, and did
not return to the river that day. I am sure, though, that unless some-
thing occurred to cancel out the memory of that night flight of ants,
trout would have continued to take my Black Ant offering.

Just as an angler has several major aquatic species for matching,
he also has many terrestrials worth consideration as the season
advances. Bees and ants (Hymenoptera), flies (order Diptera, family
Simuliidae), land moths (Lepidoptera), and grasshoppers (Orthop-
tera) are the principal terrestrials. Some of the orders actually
include aquatic insects as well as terrestrials, but the more common
ones belonging to the above orders are definitely terrestrial.

The most common terrestrials on trout and bass streams are the
ants and deer flies. Ant flights occur all during the summer until late
autumn. At mid-season, the dominant color of the more active ants
is black. As the season advances this color changes. The black wood
ants are no longer active; instead, there will be huge flights of the
common red ants. The first flights of common wood ants are not good
floaters. They are best matched with a black pattern, fished in the
surface film in the dry fly water sections of a stream, and deeper in
the wet fly water sections (more about this water distinction in
another chapter). The fly size should not be larger than a 12, and a
14 or 16 is often much the better choice, especially if you have any
termite hatches on your streams.

The later flights of red ants are an out-and-out dry fly opportu-
nity. Fortunately, they usually appear early enough to afford excel-
lent evening fishing. A spent wing dry fly Pink Lady on a size 12
hook is a perfect pattern matching for the autumn hatches.

THE TERRESTRIAL INSECTS 35

Deer fly patterns are important during the extremely hot summer
months, for this is the time when the naturals are most abundant
Deer fly patterns are perhaps fished more haphazardly than any
other fly, but they are most responsive to proper technique and
matching.

Even the most casual study of deer flies will show that a prime
requirement of matching these terrestrials is smaHaess. Too many
anglers try for a composite pattern which includes both the deer
flies and other flies such as the blue bottle, common housefly, and
such. They achieve a large pattern, but match nothing. Deer flies
and black flies cannot be matched successfully with hook sizes
larger than a 14 dry, or a 12 size for wet fly fishing.

A careful study of deer flies, black flies, and gnats indicates sev-
eral factors of complete matching which must be kept constantly
in mind. You cannot have a complete matching on windy days, nor
is it possible over fast water. Those are basic conditions which must
be considered. Ever notice any flies or gnats bothering you on
windy days, while fishing? No. But when there is no trace of wind
they can be vicious pests. Obviously, when you are striving for a
complete matching you match conditions just as carefully as if you
had a noticable flight or hatch to guide you. If it takes still, warm
days to put deer flies along a stream, there is little point in matching
them under other conditions.

By the same token, when the right conditions are present, it isn't
good technique to use any other pattern.

Deer and kindred flies are not found uniformly along streams.
They frequent those sections which are sheltered. They like still
water and avoid those sections of a stream which have fast glides
and riffles which create air currents above the water. This doesn't
mean that no flies will be found under these adverse conditions.
But it does mean that if you are to touch all the maximum factors
of pattern and matching, you must carefully consider both weather
and water in connection with the natural you imitate.

Have you ever walked along the banks of a stream flowing
through a meadow and seen grasshoppers dropping into the water
as they made terrific hops to avoid you? They are constantly being
"touched off' by fishermen as well as by farm animals walking along

36 THE TERRESTRIAL INSECTS

the banks. There is scarcely an hour when they are not dropping
into a trout stream. So it is not surprising that fly patterns based on
grasshoppers are very productive from mid- June until autumn.

These patterns are of an almost infinite variety, and most of them
are very good, too. The only failure I ever had was fishing with a
monstrous rubber hopper with a size 3/0 hook. It just proved to be
too much grasshopper for the trout. Maybe they were so stunned
with their good luck in having this large economy-size hopper gently
drop into a pool that they never suspected it should be eaten. In
any event, they failed to respond to my offering. But another pattern
on a size 12, 3X long hook was excellent. Trout literally took that
pattern apart one August day.

There are any number of good grasshopper patterns tied by pro-
fessional fly tyers. The essential thing is to stay on the small size.
It is seldom good practice to go larger than a size 10 hook, and in
most instances a size 12 is better.

Fishing a grasshopper pattern is an art, one which every country
boy masters early in life from using grasshoppers for bait. Correct
methods of fishing a grasshopper fly pattern are best learned by
watching a natural drop into the stream. A grasshopper is not selec-
tive about the point where he comes into die water. Fact is, he is
probably the most inconsiderate of all trout provender. Given a high
enough bank, and the least incentive, a grasshopper will clear a good
twelve feet of space to pass over a beautiful trout 'lay'* and hit
solidly in the shallows. Eventually, he will kick himself free of the
slow current and be caught up in the fast water.

He is not resigned to his fate, however. He struggles, kicking
about on and under the surface, but always relentlessly carried to-
ward a waiting fish. You seldom see a trout leave an upstream feed-
ing station and drop down to spear a hopper which has come into
the stream below him. Hoppers are so abundant that there is less
competition for those coming into a mid-season stream. Both trout
and bass wait for grasshoppers to be carried to them from upstream.
Those dropping in below are carried to the next feeding station
downstream, unless they are taken by minnows and such.

There are two reasons for this. First, hoppers come into the stream
most abundantly during the sunshiny hours a time when trout are

THE TERRESTRIAL INSECTS 37

less active in their feeding and foraging. Second, grasshoppers are
mid-season food. At mid-season, streams are low and clear a time
when trout moving out of their shelter spots are more exposed than
they would be earlier in the season.

All this a country boy knows, intimately. He will place a fat
luscious grasshopper on his hook, cast upstream, then follow out his
drift with just enough line control to set his hook when a trout
strikes. This is also good technique when using an artificial, with the
added advantage that you can make a more delicate presentation
when fishing a grasshopper pattern than with the real thing.

A nine- to twelve-foot leader, tapering to a fine 3X or 4X tippet,
will make its contribution. So will the ability to throw an outside
or inside curve cast, allowing your fly line to fall away from the main
channel of the stream which you must work with your hopper fly
pattern.

A grasshopper should be fished on the surface. At the same time,
you should forget about attempting a perfect float. A natural is
under the surface one moment, on the surface the next. But he is
seldom carried deep between the point where he drops into the
stream and the point where some lucky fish intercepts Turn.

There are a lot of good terrestrial insects as background for those
fly patterns based on bees. Probably the most common fly pattern
is the Western Bee, and a very good one it is, too, if it is kept plenty
small, say a size 10 or 12. The pattern, like most of those based on
bees, hornets, and yellow jackets, comes in both wet and dry
versions. The wet fly has been most productive for me, fished shallow
during those low-water periods when July is spilling over into
August.

The Western Bee pattern reminds me of one fishing trip on a
mountain river, when I tried for a spot of dark shadowed water
beneath an overhanging willow, casting across a deep green pool.
I overreached slightly with my fly, hanging it just above the water
in those trailing willows. I had seen a trout dimpling there just a
moment before, too.

I took a strain on my line, remembering my 3X leader tippet. The
bush shook slightly from my efforts, and a stream of yellow jackets

38 THE TERRESTRIAL INSECTS

poured from beneath the willows. There was nothing to do but break
loose.

There, I thought, is an end to any plans about taking that trout.
He would be down for at least an hour after the disturbance I had
made in breaking loose. But that rainbow, fully 16 inches long,
began a frantic cruising around beneath those swarming yellow
jackets. They had a nest under the willows so close to the water
that, apparently, they miscalculated often enough in flying into it to
keep that trout well supplied with yellow jackets dropping on the
surface.

I tied on another Western Bee wet fly, worked out line, and
dropped my pattern directly this side of the willows, I could see
that huge rainbow coming too plain. As it punched my fly, I took
it away from him. On my next cast, however, I managed to wait out
the strike, hooking him solidly.

Several other patterns would have turned the trick here. A Wood-
cock or a Yellow would have served very well under the circum-
stances. So would a small, size 12 Royal Coachman Bucktail.

I have said that the most successful patterns are those fished wet.
This, it seems to me, is because bees, yellow jackets, and hornets,
like most terrestrials, are not as buoyant as out-and-out aquatics
such as the may flies. They become sodden and are carried in the
surface film, rather than on the surface.

In matching all terrestrials, get your fly down on the water
directly. There is no need of slipping it in at the head of a riffle,
then allowing it to go deep so it can be worked up from the bottom
often a profitable undertaking with a nymph pattern, or a wet fly
based on any of the aquatic insects.

In matching terrestrials here is what it adds up to: the naturals
come in from the surface and are not long in the stream before they
are carried below the surface. They never move upstream from the
time they touch the water. They have enough life in them, even
after being in the water for some time, to continue to struggle. That
means you cast upstream and follow out the drift, very much as you
fish a dry fly, regardless of whether a wet or dry fly is being used.
It also suggests a cautious working of the fly at all times during the
drift. And if you use a wet fly pattern, shallow fishing is indicated.

Wet Flies

(Flies labeled from left to right top to bottom.)

Professor

March Brown

Royal Coachman

Leadwing Coachman

Western Coachman

Caddis Buck

Dark Cahill

Grey Hackle Peacock

Grey Hackle Yellow

Brown Hackle
Peacock

Gold Ribbed Hare's
Ear

Western Bee

Black Gnat

Black Fox

Woolly Worm

Cowdung

Blue Dun

Captain

Cutthroat

Coachman

California
Mosquito Old Iron

Blue Dun

McGinty Black Quill

Orange Fishhawk

(Courfesy of Wayne fiuszeJc, V/sa/io, Ccr/from/a)

Taken with a wet fly, fished deep. The author and a sixteen-inch trout.

Hard-action (left) and soft-action (right) fly rods. In the softer action, more bend
occurs well down toward the grip; this is excellent for nymphing or bass bugging.
(Paul H. Young Co.)

THE TERRESTRIAL INSECTS 39

Terrestrials approach their greatest abundance by degrees. There
is no clear-cut division between the time when aquatic insects pre-
dominate as fish diet and the time when terrestrials are more im-
portant. One day you find all your favorite patterns based on the
aquatic insects becoming less and less responsive and then it is time
to consider the influence of the terrestrial insects on your trout
streams.

SURFACE FLIES

One season, during the low-water period of late summer, I
watched an angler take a limit of rainbows with a dry fly by casting
downstream. It was an unorthodox approach to dry fly fishing, but
it was very effective. Conditions were not promising that hot cloud-
less day, and few fish were being taken. We started fishing dry flies
in the conventional manner, getting nice floats in the broken riffles,
but there was no response. By all the rules of the game, those trout
should have been lying in that rough water. It was beautiful green
water, flecked with white around the sunken boulders, ideal in every
respect, except that few trout were interested, and those scarcely
in the keeper class.

My fishing partner moved downstream to where the willows
crowded each side of a deep pool below the riffles. There was no
chance for anything except a downstream cast, and that is exactly
the type he made, not haphazardly, but carefully. He dropped his
fly on the fast-moving water, then stripped line as the current carried
it toward the foot of the rapid. The strike came just as his dry fly
touched the head of the pool, netting him a nice 12-inch rainbow.

I immediately moved down to the riffle he was fishing to watch
his technique. After all, I fish even my wet pattern upstream as a
usual thing, so I was doubly interested* I wanted to see if that 12-
inch rainbow was an accident, or if my angling partner had actually

SURFACE FLIES 41

touched on some special technique which those shy trout endorsed
today.

It was surprising the length of floats he obtained without drag.
Line, leader, and fly moved in the same thread of current, however,
and he had no cross current to bother him a beautiful advantage
one can credit to downstream casting when using a dry fly.

On his third cast he netted another trout, this one a full 15 inches
long. Then he repeated after resting the water for ten minutes. Most
of the strikes came at the foot of the riffles, where the water slowed
as it moved into the sparkling green pools. No hatches were over
the water, but his successful pattern was a may fly. Only a day
before I had taken six nice trout from this stream with a may fly
pattern, fishing those riffles which proved so unproductive today.

It is interesting to examine both the unusual method of fishing
and the reason for the success of that may fly pattern. Each made its
contribution, you may be sure. Take that downstream casting. Un-
less you examined this technique carefully and objectively, you
could be convinced that it actually held some attractive factor not
found in our upstream casting, but it hasn't anything of the sort.
That fly, (if we disregard the downstream cast for a moment), was
delivered exactly as a conventional dry is delivered, or at least should
be delivered, in upstream casting: no shadow of line over the hold-
ing water; sunken leader; no drag. The fly came into the holding
water from upstream, just as a natural would be delivered, too. The
merit of that cast lay in the fact that with it this angler was able to
get his fly into water which he couldn't reach by conventional up-
stream casting.

The reason we failed with our upstream casting was because we
were a full day behind the season. Falling, wanning water had sent
those rainbows into the deeper pools. They received full benefit of
that aerated water pouring over the riffles by lying at the head of the
pools. My fishing die day before touched upon the few remaining
trout still holding to the riffles. Maybe, if I had fished those riffles
carefully in late evening or early morning, a few more fish might
have been found there. But with just the one factor of adverse
weather working against an angler, midday fishing was not produc-
tive.

42 SURFACE FLIES

That may fly pattern, which we both had used successfully, I in
the riffles, he at the head of the pool, deserves plenty of thought.
With no hatch over the water either day, the places in which it
would prove most effective were not touched. We must first examine
the entire concept of dry fly fishing to picture this as it really
happens.

Dry flies are most often associated with a hatch or flight of insects.
But these are only a minor part of dry fly angling, even though fish-
ing either a hatch or a flight is no minor undertaking. Almost any
angler can take fish when a hatch is in progress, but few anglers take
full advantage of a hatch to creel big trout with a dry fly. This lost
opportunity comes, in part, from not knowing the type of water
preferred by large trout during the hatch, and fishing accordingly.

There are seldom more than two or three large trout in any one
pool, for the simple reason that competition for food tends to scatter
big fish. The rest of the trout in an average pool are keepers, ranging
in size from 8 to 12 inches. These you can only be interested in at
the expense of those few large ones.

Chapter 10 will be devoted to reading trout water, but here it is
sufficient to point out that even within the confines of a hatch, dry
fly fishing, like nymphing, must be selective in order to realize the
full potential in taking large trout.

Let's take a typical stream or, more specifically, a pool over which
may flies are hatching. This is a sub-imago hatch. The pool where
it is occurring receives its large volume of water from a green slick
which turns directly across stream, breaks through a barrier of
boulders in a smother of white lace, then swings slowly along a
lichen-covered granite dike, carrying a complement of bubbles and
foam into a slow eddy. The green current fans out into a broad
spillway at the tail of the pool.

Approach this piece of water along the shingle to the right of
the current, and the full possibilities of the pool are open before
you. Those two or three big trout, which you can reasonably expect
to be working the hatch, are not cruising extensively. Instead, they
have taken up tie most productive feeding station in the pool. Lesser
trout are working the less desirable water.

SURFACE FLIES 43

The favored focal points are those to which may flies, swept into
the water above the pool, are carried. In addition, those flies actually
hatching within the confines of the pool and momentarily resting
on the water to dry their wings are caught up by the currents and
carried past these favored spots.

One characteristic of all such focal points is the tendency of the
current to surface at such places. Where the current pours into the
pool, all nymphs and hatching may flies are carried deep. They have
no opportunity to surface and break their wing cases because they
cannot fight up through the adverse current. But about a third to
a half of the way toward the tail of the average pool, the tendency
of the current is to surface. Here is the place for those big trout. It
is indicated by a thousand different peculiarities: bubbles surface;
bits of drift spiral up out of the depths; stream spume nods and
dances in the sparkling water.

During the heavy part of the hatch, if there is a sizeable trout in
the pool, he will be found here. It is a time to get a fly along the
marge of that bubble-haunted space where the current surfaces and
turns lazily. For, as sure as sunrise, here is where you will take a
big trout.

As the hatch tapers off, big rainbows and browns are more likely
to cruise over the entire pool, searching for the stray may flies still
coining to the surface. This is a time when you can drop your dry
fly at the tail of the pool with some hope of taking something other
than a small keeper. Surprisingly enough, when a big rainbow does
strike in these shallows, his strike will be more viciously delivered
than it would be at that concentration point he occupied earlier.
In the shallows, he is in direct competition with those lively smaller
trout and must move like lightning to spear a may fly before one
of them scoops it up.

Those trout which my fishing partner took at the head of the pool
were not on feeding station. They were in position there for two
reasons: shelter and comfort. They took that may fly pattern because
of a memory of a previous hatch.

The duration of a hatch is a time for wonderful dry fly angling,
but your fishing should be good for a much longer period than the
actual occurrence. Just remember that a river at any given time is the

44 SURFACE FLIES

sum total of all activity and weather for the past twenty-four "hour
period. And to a great extent, future activity is anticipated for sev-
eral hours by trout y before hatches and flights take place.

This statement directly ties in with what I say in Chapter 9 (Night
Matching for "Off* Days) and is mentioned here only because it is so
closely identified with dry fly angling. If your dry fly isn't productive
before the actual hatch is under way, you may be sure it is not a
true matching of the expected hatch. After a hatch is finished, your
pattern, properly fished, will produce for several hours while trout
retain the memory of that recent hatch. A hatch is not snapped on
and off as precisely as a light switch. Angling conditions change,
that is all. Your trout are no longer on active feeding station, but
if you do plenty of sharpshooting with your dry fly pattern, touching
the logical hideouts where the hatch occurred, you will pick up some
worth-while fish. As memory fades after the hatch is over, there will
be less and less interest in the matching pattern. This in large
measure accounts for those so-called barren days.

If you step into a stream which has experienced several heavy
hatches before your arrival and accidentally fish it with a dry fly
pattern which complements those recent hatches, you are in for some
exciting angling. Maybe you return again and get another good day's
fishing. But a slight change in the weather can cancel out the
memory of that particular hatch by producing a flight of different
insects over the water. Then you must re-examine your technique
and your pattern.

Confirming evidence of future hatches can often be obtained by
examining stream-side foliage for caddis and may flies. Often, may
fly nymph cases left on rocks and snags will also help you in select-
ing a dry fly pattern.

It is not my purpose to touch upon the mechanics of fly fishing
here, telling of the obvious necessity of fishing without drag and
using fine leaders. My unvarying theme all through this book is
versatility and basic knowledge of successful angling.

I recall fishing the South Fork of Oregon's Coquille River one
June day. We started by dropping our flies upstream, using long,
fine leaders with 4X tippets. Both method and fly proved ineffective.
At the time, a spinner hatch of may flies was over the water scat-

SURFACE FLIES 45

tered and erratic. Occasionally, wlien a fly touched the water, there
was an indifferent, casual rise from a trout.

We begin to skip-jump our flies directly across the riffles, using
a very short line. Trout showed some interest in this, rising short
on several occasions. Then I changed to a March Brown, size 12 fly.
That was all that was needed; we got action at once.

The technique is very simple. Cast twenty feet or so, and as your
fly touches the water send in a light roll cast to raise the line and
pick up your fly slightly. Dap it over the water as you bring it in.
With a little practice, you can have your fly bouncing over the riffles
in a very lifelike manner. It surely touches off indifferent trout, on
occasion.

There is no question but that a dry fly should be worked, all
purists to the contrary. Skip-jump it and work the rod tip to make
your fly "struggle" on the surface, especially if it is a terrestrial insect
you are imitating.

Working a dry fly doesn't mean that any disturbance comes under
the head of dry fly art. A great deal of delicacy is wrapped up in
just a rod-tip wiggle. And back of that rod-tip wiggle must be a
sure knowledge of the insect which the angler is trying to imitate.
As a matter of fact, the entire art of successful dry fly fishing may
well be summarized by that one word delicacy.

Delicacy is more important than pattern, assuming for the mo-
ment that delicacy and pattern can be divorced, which I doubt.
When delicacy is wedded to versatility it is an unbeatable dry fly
combination.

FOR

BIG FISH-
TRY STREAMERS

Big trout, pickerel, bass, panfish they all go for a properly fished
streamer fly. The larger the fish, the greater the chances of taking
him on a streamer.

Why? To answer that, one must make a careful study of food
preferences of the larger fish of each species, and then remember
that streamer flies are based on the smaller fish life. Here are the
food preferences of large trout, based on a careful study of stomach
contents:

Up to 12 inches in length: 40 per cent aquatic insects, 30 per
cent minnows.

Over 12 inches in length: 18 per cent aquatic insects, 48 per cent
minnows. The rest of the food is unidentified, but must include
terrestrial insects. It is significant that the food of trout 12 inches
or longer is matched 48 per cent of the time when one uses streamer
flies, and that if aquatic insect patterns are used they would match
only 18 per cent of the time.

Such figures are a direct endorsement of streamer flies when you
want to take truly large fish. While these food preferences are based
on the stomach contents of trout, the figures are equally valid for

FOR BIG FISH TRY STREAMERS 47

any otiher species of fish. A truly large fish has an insatiable appetite,
and there is no more satisfactory forage than small fish. This is
especially true of bass, trout, and other large game fish. Even large
pan fishes are not above dining on their smaller stream mates. (See
Chapter 31.)

The fact that streamer flies are based on smaller fish life is indi-
cative of the best method of fishing them. Streamer flies, of course,
have much in common with orthodox wet flies, but there is a basic
difference which must be considered if an angler is to realize their
full fish-taking potential.

To fish streamer flies successfully, you must visualize what is
normally taking place in the average pool. Each pool, as we have
pointed out, has its favored feeding stations and hideouts which are
preempted by the larger trout. Less favored water swarms with
smaller fish minnows, small trout, alevin, and parr. Any time smaller
fish move into these favored spots they are fair game for the big
trout and bass.

It would be a hopeless task to try and pinpoint the favored spots
inhabited by those large trout, except for one thing. Stream study
shows that they are directly tied in with the normal flow of stream
food the points in the stream which gather all food and funnel it by
the feeding stations. So in fishing a streamer, it is a basic technique
to send it along those channels which carry and concentrate the
natural food. Our streamer fly pattern then becomes, to all intents
and purposes, a foolhardy minnow or small trout moving in that
section of a stream which has the larger food concentration. That
natural minnows and small fish actually do this is testified to by the
fact that they are such a large percentage of the food found in the
stomach samples of large trout.

Such natural minnows, moving in on these preferred spots, are
forced to do so by the terrific competition for food in the shallows.
They also are forced into the main feeding channels by foraging
larger fish charging through the minnow concentrations in the
shallows. This indicates other factors which must be considered in
matching. A large fish, abandoning the security of his well-sheltered
feeding station and charging through the exposed shallows, where

48 FOR BIG FISH TRY STREAMERS

most of the smaller fry are concentrated, strikes viciously. His foray
leaves many wounded, crippled minnows in its wake. These are
inevitably sucked into the main flowage, and eventually are carried
past the natural feeding stations of those larger trout downstream.

If we disregard the actual pattern for the moment, an angler has
two minnows to imitate in order to achieve a full matching. He
must imitate the normal, uninjured minnow, and he must imitate the
injured minnow. Each requires a slightly different working of the
pattern.

Take the uninjured minnow, for example. It has a nervous,
darting movement. It pauses for a moment, remaining stationary
against the pull of the current. It moves cross-current to examine
minute pieces of stream flotsam. The trend is for a natural minnow
to lose position slowly in the stream as it works, dropping down-
stream slightly. In turning toward any object which has its atten-
tion, it usually lets the object drift by slightly, then turns so that the
force of the current will assist it in making its strike.

All this adds up to fishing a streamer fly from the head of the
pools, more or less, where the pattern can be made to pause and
hover close to an indicated feeding station of larger trout. It is a
simple matter to move the fly back and forth, as if it were a natural
investigating stream bounty. Indeed, if the water is clear enough to
see your pattern, it is very good technique to let it trail any small
object carried by the current. This is easily accomplished by care-
fully stripping line to pace the speed of the current.

In imitating a wounded minnow, it is imperative to send the
pattern in from the head of the pool, working it slightly to imitate
the struggles of a minnow. But make it a loosing battle with the
current from start to finish. There is no pausing. A wounded minnow
is carried deep, and is more "water willed" than an uninjured one.

Streamer flies will be effective even when there is a hatch over
the water. Brown trout, especially, come to a properly fished
streamer fly worked through the restricted water of a pool where
the large trout concentrate. Fish of all sizes feed on the hatch, but
the larger fish are very prone to move in on the lesser one attracted
by the hatching insects.

FOR BIG FISHTRY STREAMERS 49

When a hatch is in progress it is very good technique to drop a
streamer fly into the situation. Very often, you will attract those
large old trout which are no longer greatly interested in surface
flies. A friend of mine, fishing a beautiful river in England, had
evidence confirming this. His host complained that several large
brown trout were playing havoc with the smaller fish, but were no
longer greatly interested in any conventional dry flies. He wanted
them cleaned out of his waters.

My friend tried a streamer during a may fly hatch. Almost im-
mediately, he took a big, old lantern-jawed brown trout. This he
repeated five times, to the amazement and satisfaction of his dry
fly fishing host. That is something to remember when you are taking
nothing but keepers with dry flies during a hatch.

What streamer fly patterns?

Let's get back to those myriad small fish we call minnows-
meaning everything from young trout to bass, bluegill, shiner, dace,
stickleback, and true minnows. You see their tiny flashing silver-
bronze sides as they turn and dart in the stream, picking up minute
objects they feed upon, avoiding larger fish.

The entire clan has about five basic colors brown, natural red,
olive, gray, and silver. The two most common colors are silver and
olive-brown, and these two basic colors are a very good yardstick
with which to measure the worth of commercial streamer patterns.
Edison Tiger, light; Edison Tiger, dark; Warden's Worry; Lady
Ghost, Orange Dace; Black Nosed Dace these can be highly recom-
mended. There are many others, of course, but the above list is
excellent for an angler who wants to keep his streamer fly assort-
ment close to those two basic colors.

Best results are obtained with streamer flies which are not too
large: a size 10 3X long is about right for hook size. Occasionally,
when the quarry is steelhead or Atlantic salmon, or some other large
species, a size 8 or 6 is to be preferred. But remember that the
smaller-size pattern can be presented with more delicacy. And
delicacy of presentation is just as essential in fishing streamer flies
as it is in fishing dry flies. Those small minnows on which the

50 FOR BIG FISH TRY STREAMERS

streamers are based are delicacy personified. You never have a bit
of finesse to spare in the complete matching, when using streamer
flies. Fished right, however, streamer flies are deadly throughout
the season on all game fish. And what a beautiful change of pace
they give you!

NIGHT AAATCHING
FOR "OFF" DAYS

"Go back beyond the daylight hours for your matching when a
river is off what happened during the darkness before you came
on the river is often much more important to the success of your
fishing than what is happening now. 5 * An old fisherman delivered
that angling profundity on Oregon's Deschutes River, while holding
aloft a beautiful 2-pound brown trout, one of five he had creeled
that late July morning. It was his explanation of his success on a day
when most anglers left the Deschutes without anything more than
a few keeper-size trout.

I half forgot his advice over the season and often looked for solu-
tions to the problem of bringing a seemingly barren river to life in
all other directions. Anglers are conservative by nature, and it takes
a definite break with traditional fly fishing to act upon such advice
about night matching. This is especially true if there is an indication
of a hatch over the water, even though the trout are not interested
in it.

Then, one morning in mid- June, with a scattering of may flies
over the water, I came up solidly against the stubborn fact that my
careful matching and fishing of a may fly pattern was no more
attractive to the trout than the naturals they were ignoring. The
hatch was there, asking to be matched with a number 12 March

52 NIGHT MATCHING FOR "OFF" DAYS

Brown. I lengthened my leader to a full twelve feet. I dropped down
to a 5X tippet. Then I checked each segment of my angling tech-
nique to see if some element of the complete matching was lacking.
There was nothing more I could do except to change pattern. Sev-
eral patterns later, I hadn't taken a trout.

I changed my method of fishing. Instead of continuing with a dry
fly I tried a wet fly pattern which had nothing in common with
those tantalizing may flies. My choice was a Caddis Bucktail, size
8. Maybe the advice of that old angler on the Deschutes River had
some subconscious influence on my choice. A Caddis Bucktail, as
you know, is a bushy affair. It is not easy to get down on the bottom
where a wet fly usually belongs. But it does have many virtues, the
chief of which is its ability to match many different insects, both
aquatic and terrestrial.

My first cast, upstream and across to gain depth, saw the pattern
plop down on the water to float half submerged. Just about every-
thing was wrong with that cast. The big, bushy pattern came to the
water with no grace at all a lamentable lack of delicacy on my
part. It didn't sink properly, so I worked my rod tip to drown it.
The pattern had scarcely disappeared below the surface before a
12-inch rainbow speared it, leaving a ring of disturbed water drift-
ing down toward me as he slapped the water with his tail.

I played him close to the shallow so as to not disturb the pool.
After netting him, I flicked my fly out along a rock ledge where the
current turned lazily in a smooth sweep of green backwater, a per-
fect place for a large trout. The wooling that scrappy little rainbow
had given my fly had worked enough water into it so that it sank
readily. Down through the backwater it drifted, completely water-
willed. Again it produced a 16-inch rainbow smashing it whole-
heartedly.

A definite technique begins to emerge. Send a wet fly in at the
head of a run or other natural subdivision of a stream. Let it be a
pattern based on night matching, and a lot of "ofF streams will
respond with good catches. In the next chapter, "Reading Water/'
the natural divisions of a stream into dry and wet fly water will be
fully considered. Here the subject is only touched upon briefly as
it affects night matching.

NIGHT MATCHING FOR "OFF" DAYS 53

Let's turn back to river night life to see why that Caddis Bucktail
in a size 8 proved effective when careful matching of the hatch was
not productive. "A river at any given time is the sum total of its past
twenty-four hours of activity." Remember? Your angling must not
only touch present activity, but past activity as well. Each hour of
the past twenty-four has some influence on your quarry's response
to your offering. Quite often, past activity is much more profitable
to match than the activity presently occurring on the stream as you
fish. So, as a broad basis for matching, examine carefully all perti-
nent factors of the past twenty-four hours, especially when present
hatches are not getting any response.

A full moon was riding the June sky the night before I came on
the river. That meant a lot of nocturnal insects terrestrials for the
most part were coming into the river without rhyme or reason-
brown moths, white moths, crane flies, and ants such as you see
around porch and street lights on warm evenings.

These big, clumsy night visitors seldom come down to the sur-
face with any delicacy. Instead, the moonstruck creatures hit the
water with plenty of disturbance. They have a ready reception from
the truly large trout which tend to nocturnal feeding. After night
feeding, these large trout tend to become dormant while the sun
is on the water. Even a minor hatch will not greatly interest them.
But they do retain the memory of that night feeding, and it is here
that you have some chance of touching them to activity during the
daylight hours.

Take that large-size Caddis Bucktail I was using. Obviously, the
fish came to it because it was associated with their night feeding.
The parts of my matching which touched upon night feeding were
the size of the pattern used, the color of the pattern, and the presen-
tation. The importance of each segment of the matching is not in
the order I have set down, but is about equally divided.

My fly hit the surface with a disturbance which imitated the
larger nocturnal insects. By fishing upstream and getting a deep
drift, I touched upon another important matching factor: once they
hit the surface, most nocturnal insects are trapped by the current
and carried under, especially in the wet fly water of a stream.

54 NIGHT MATCHING FOR "OFF 1 DAYS

At first thought it would seem that not enough nocturnal insects
would come into a stream to measurably affect fishing next day.
But one must remember the myriad insects attracted by street and
porch lights on warm evenings. Stars and moonlight shining on those
trout pools have the same effect on the night fliers, and so does the
scintillation of broken water on the riffles.

Once, while fishing Rogue River, I had an "off* day. I spent a lot
of valuable angling time trying for a careful matching of some small
dark midges presently over the water. Experience with night match-
ing by this time had taught me the futility of such an undertaking,
but angling tradition is hard to down. Besides, those midges were
attracting some attention from the lesser trout in the shallows. In
the main holding water, however, where one expected to find a
worth-while trout, there was no sign of interest. I fished the hatch
for the better part of two morning hours before abandoning it.

A good rule concerning any daytime hatch is to watch for the
fish activity it attracts. Does the hatch have any attraction for a
trout or bass you would like to creel, or is it attracting only the
smaller fish life? Sometimes it is very worth while to match a midge
hatch, such as I fished over on the Rogue River. At other times,
when those hatches are not attractive, night matching is definitely
indicated.

A half moon was riding the mid-July night sky that time I fished
the Rogue, and a White Miller fly pattern proved to be the magic
which brought those famous riffles to life. This pattern, in outline,
has much in common with a Caddis Bucktail, when both are tied
on the same size hook.

I cast up and quartering across the riffles, allowing my fly to
come down without drag, deep through the feeding channels. I
touched only those sections which carried the stream bounty well
under the surface, because I was fishing my pattern wet. At the
end of a very difficult day, I had creeled six trout ranging from 12
to 15 inches in length.

Another lesson on the importance of night matching occurred
while I was fishing Oregon's famed McKenzie River. There was no
hatch over the water. The river, running clear and low, showed no

Dry Flies

(Flies labeled from left to right, top to bottom.)

Adams

Irresistible

Grey Hackle Yellow

Greyback Yellow

Light Cahill

Dark Cahill

Royal Coachman

Grey Wulff

Grizzly Wulff

Rat Face
McDougal

Horner Deer
Hair

Black Bumble Bee

Donnelly Dark
Variant

Brown Bi-Visible

Gold Body
Multi-Variant

King River Caddis

Badger Spider

Joe's Hopper

Adam's Female
Spentwing

Blue Quill

California
Mosquito

Kolzer Caddis
Orange

Muddler Minnow Flot-n-Fool
Multi

Deschutes
Stone Fly

(Courtesy of Wayne fiuszelr. Visa/fa, California)

Short upstream casts with a dry fly demand the ultimate in delicacy and accuracy.

Three who fell to a streamer fly. Examination of stomach contents shows that
big trout feed largely on smaller fish. A streamer fly, duplicating a minnow, is
an excellent lure for lunkers.

NIGHT MATCHING FOR "OFF" DAYS 55

activity whatsoever that kte August day. The special dry fly patterns
associated with the McKenzie beguiled me for two or three hours
of morning fishing. Eventually I had these and several other favorite
patterns tested and found wanting. So it was back to night matching
if I was to take any fish.

Several patterns were indicated for this late-season fishing-
Moths, Millers, and Ants the most consistent producer being the
Black Ant. There are several variations of this pattern, but the one
I used is fairly representative: black, fairly full body, no wings,
black tail, soft black hackle in the wet fly version, stiff black hackle
when tied dry. The head of the fly is built up of black tying thread,
then lacquered to give it a gloss.

The Black Ant pattern is one of the exceptions to a large size fly
for night matching. A number 10 size hook is amply large. Crane
flies would be another exception if it were profitable to imitate them.
But when crane flies are abroad at night, so many other more im-
portant nocturnals are on the wing that it is best to match the larger
night fliers.

I dropped my Black Ant pattern near a huge boulder which held
a steady shoulder against the current at the head of the riffle. It was
taken on first cast by a 14-inch McKenzie rainbow. Three casts later
I got a repeat performance, creeling a 16-inch trout. This last trout
was well rounded, so I opened him up to examine stomach contents
against my successful pattern. A half handful of black winged ants
fell out. They were well digested, indicating that the flight had taken
place several hours previously, probably in the early evening before
the cooling hours discouraged such nocturnal activity.

I took seven trout that morning. Working downstream, I began
to draw blanks on promising water with my Black Ant pattern. But
the occurrence wasn't so unusual when the obvious answer was
found that I had touched upon a very localized ant flight. My Black
Ant pattern had been effective within the confines of that flight. I
don't know how far it extended upstream, but I certainly outlined
its downstream limits.

A nondescript fly of a type which the English call "insects" put
my afternoon fishing back on a paying basis, giving me three more

56 NIGHT MATCHING FOR "OFF" DAYS

trout which I carefully released. This pattern has nothing more than
a natural red hackle, tied wet, a full, brown chenille body, and a
size 10 hook. It is a very simple fly, but very much like any number
of night fliers full bodied and a bit sluggish in the water. This is
always an essential in any fly pattern when you are night matching.

READING
TROUT WATER

Basically speaking, all good trout waters have three things in
common. The foremost is security., then food, followed closely by
comfort. Examine any stream with these three factors in mind, and
when you come to a piece of water having them you have found the
most productive place for your flies.

The characteristics of water which produce these favored factors
are very diverse. Eugene Burns, in his excellent book, Advanced
Fly Fishing, has a very pertinent chapter on stream flow. The gist
of this chapter is that slow, comfortable water is found at the
bottom and edges of a stream other factors being equal. The great-
est current velocity is near the center of the stream, about halfway
to the bottom. Slow water is comfortable water and is preferred
by the fish. Here you will find your big trout and bass.

Trout lying in this slowed section of a stream need make but
little effort to maintain their position. When stream bounty is carried
down by the current, they are in position to intercept it without
trouble. In this slowed water, they take up positions beside sunken
logs or beneath cut banks out of the main suck of the current.

How far the fish will move out of their favorable, comfortable
positions to take a fly is conditioned by the time of day and by the

58 READING TROUT WATER

problem of security. If they would have to move out into an exposed
position to pick up a tidbit after the sun is on the water, the offering
may be rejected. So, as the day advances, there is a drawing in of the
distance within which they might be enticed with a fly. The produc-
tive water is reduced in area. In mid-day fishing, your fly must be
delivered more closely to the trout on station than would be the case
in the morning or evening.

Investigations show that very large fish of any species confine
their active feeding almost exclusively to late evening, night, and
early morning. It takes a very large, attractive hatch to touch off
an active feeding period in mid-day.

There are exceptions, however, to the basic idea that all com-
fortable water is found near the edges of a stream and along the
bottom. In fact, the exceptions are numerous. Examined closely,
stream flowage has infinite differences, even within the confines of
one pool Slow and comfortable water is not invariably close to the
shores or the bottom. If the current turns down in one spot, it will
just as surely surface farther downstream. If there is a tendency for
stream bounty to be carried deep here, sucked under and forced
toward the bottom, there will surely be another portion of the stream
farther along where it will surface and be carried close to the top.
Water is twisted and turned in many different directions, and trout
respond to its vagaries in many different ways.

A stream may not produce for your dry flies in one section for a
hundred feet not because your pattern is wrong, nor because you
are not getting a proper float, but for the simple reason that you are
fishing wet fly water with a dry fly. Maybe the stream bounty is
carried deep here, even during the hatch. May flies cannot break
through the downward pressure of the current to surface here. But
below this part of a stream conditions may be in fact most often
are reversed.

Here is dry fly water. Maybe the downward flowage is broken
and retarded by a sunken log across the stream, or by a granite dike.
So the current surfaces. Hatching may flies which were carried deep
upstream are here given a gentle assist surf aceward. They pause on
the slowed water to break their wing cases, so this section of the
stream is a natural for a dry fly.

READING TROUT WATER 59

Both wet and dry fly waters are easily pinpointed on a stream.
As a usual thing, water pouring into a pool is wet fly water for the
simple reason that the tendency is for the current to turn down here*
On an average, the first third of the pool will have the fast water
near the bottom, with the slowed water near the surface and the
sides.

That statement further pinpoints the lays" of trout in this type
of water. Where the fast water is near the bottom, you will quite
often find trout stationed in the medium depths, behind sunken
boulders and other obstructions which create a water cushion in
which the fish can lie without maldng much effort to hold against
the sweep of the current.

Where the pool heads in with a depth of 10 or 12 feet, pouring
over a riffle to send the current down along the gravel, this medium
depth will be found as deep as 6 feet. Here is wet fly water which
can often be made to produce, even during mid-day. It is delivering
the larger share of stream food very deep, and it offers a security
which is lacking in shallower parts of the stream. It is not uncom-
mon to see the more shallow sections of a pool's bottom covered
with caddis fly larvae, may fly nymphs, with no sign of trout activity
during the time the sun is on the water. But once the long shadows
of evening darken the water over these shallower sections, trout
often move out to feed here.

The extent to which either type of fly, wet or dry, is successful
lies in the ability of the angler to complement his fishing method
with proper water.

A wet fly, shot to the head of a pool, and carried deep by the
current, is touching the full potential of the method. A dry fly,
however, floated over this same piece of water is not nearly so effi-
cient because it is not touching dry fly water during its entire float.

A trout taking a dry fly under such circumstances would have
to leave the comparative shelter of his bottom hideout in the com-
fortable water. He would have to come up through several feet of
intervening swift water, putting more in the effort to reach the
supposed bounty than the reward would justify. I am betting that if
you could see the reaction of a big trout to such a dry fly, it would
be one of two alternatives. Either he would move out just enough

60 READING TROUT WATER

to observe the offering briefly and then return to his shelter or, if
he was sufficiently interested, he would glide down pool to where
the water tended to surface and take the fly here. Evidence for this
latter course is to be had in the many casts where the trout takes
the dry fly just before the pickup, having followed it for several feet
before committing himself to a strike.

It is not always possible to tell at what depth trout or bass are
presently feeding by watching for signs of their stream activity. But
a careful study of the water, and an examination of stomach contents
once a fish has been creeled, will give very good clues. Even the
time of day at which most feeding occurred can be told by care-
fully examining stomach contents.

The time of feeding is indicated by observing the degree of
digestion which has occurred before the trout was taken, then relat-
ing this to the weather. Digestion is quite rapid during the warm
spring and summer months. In winter, when water temperatures are
lower, it is much slower. Well-pulped stomach contents in spring or
summer indicate a major feeding period several hours past. Insects
and nymphs showing only slight change have been taken within the
past two hours. The types of food nymphs, aquatic adult insects,
terrestrial flies, and minnows spell out feeding depths in many
ways.

Here is a typical example of steelhead stomach contents exam-
ined while fishing Oregon's Rogue River. Don't let that fabulous
name "steelhead" suggest that there is some esoteric difference
between its basic feeding habits and those of any other large trout.

1. May fly nymphs (Ephemeroptera) were the most abundant
food found in the diet.

2. Stonefly nymphs (Plectoptera) were the second most abund-
ant organism.

3. One caddis larva (family Hydrophilidae).

4. One unidentified terrestrial.

5. Portion of one Hemiptera.

6. Two small twigs and roots of vegetation.

The stomach contents were well pulped, indicating an active
feeding period several hours before this steelhead was caught

READING TROUT WATER 6!

early morning, to pinpoint it further, as I took the steelhead at
eleven o'clock.

Relate all those small food items to your actual fishing, and it
becomes apparent that the most productive portion of the river was
its wet fly waterfished deep. A wet fly or nymph pattern dropped
at the head of a pool was the productive procedure on Rogue River
this October day. Late in the evening, with a scattered hatch of
may flies over the river, those steelhead came avidly to a dry fly,
fished carefully in the dry fly water of the pool.

You may ask, "What has this to do with a trout stream in the
East, where I fish?"

There is no essential difference between trout streams, East or
West. The ability to read favored spots on the veriest triclde of a
trout stream meandering through a Vermont meadow has much in
common with the lore of a West Coast steelhead or cutthroat trout
stream. An ability to read the one is excellent practice for the other.

I am reminded of my good friend Dr. J. L. Mudd's experience
with dry flies while fishing for steelhead. He wrote: "There is a
stretch of water on Trinity River [California] where I have had
marvelous dry fly fishing in 1951, the fore part of October." Now
notice how he pinpoints the dry fly water: "The tail end of a long
deep pool was my productive water. The current picks up speed
slightly here before it breaks over a cascade about 6 feet high.
The river has a cobblestone bottom with rocks up to 2 feet in
diameter/'

Is that type of dry fly water any different from your smaller
trout stream? Notice how the more productive water for dry flies
occurs where the current turns up after going deep at the head of
the pool?

Farther along in his letter, Dr. Mudd tells of matching a sub-
imago hatch of may flies. He not only matched the hatch with his
home-tied Blue may fly, but also matched the very water on which
the naturals were surfacing to break their wing cases. That is a
complete matching, and it is the mark of a great angler experienced
in reading and evaluating a stream.

THE INTANGIBLES
OF FLY PATTERNS
AND WATER

It takes keen observation to assess all the finer nuances of fishing
which make their contribution to the success of a cast. The differ-
ences between a successful presentation of a fly, and one which isn't
successful, are sometimes so infinitesimal they go unnoticed, even
by skilled anglers. Pattern color in reference to the water, method of
fishing each must be related to creel trout.

One day, on Oregon's McKenzie River, I was struck with the
unvarying success of a dry fly fisherman. He was taking those
"McKenzie Redsides" with startling regularity, while a number of
us other anglers were having but indifferent success.

Fishing was centered on a series of deep green pools on this
particular day. Here the stream bottom was a bright, almost white
sand, interspersed with gray, granite cobblestone and white quartz.
The successful angler was using a March Brown size 14 dry fly.

He would drop his small dry fly on the bubble-shot surface near
the tail of the pool. Then he would pause briefly, pick it up, and
shoot it back to almost the exact spot where he had touched the
water with his first cast. There was a delicacy to his cast and pick-up
which never varied. By sending in a slight roll, as if he actually were

THE INTANGIBLES OF FLY PATTERNS AND WATER 63

beginning a roll cast, his line came off the water without disturb-
ance, and his fly left the surface with the finesse of a natural. At
about the third cast, one of those red-sided McKenzie rainbows
would arrow up out of the bright sparkling water to smash his fly
with a morale-shattering surface explosion.

A dark midge hatch was over this section of the river at this
time. During the early morning hours there had been a hatch of
small may flies, but just a few scattering may flies lingered over the
pools now. What to match? My guess, like that of the successful
angler, was the may flies. Trout had shown interest in them for some
time. Then, as the hatch tapered off, activity had subsided. The
midge hatch presently over the water was only attracting a few
"keeper size** trout.

I shot my own March Brown pattern out across those pools. Time
after time I got a perfect float, picking up my fly without the least
disturbance but no luck.

I think it was the most frustrating fishing I have ever done.
Eventually I reeled in my line, hooked my fly in the keeper ring of
my fly rod and walked up to the pool this angler fished. I knew from
watching his performance that he was picking up his fly more often
than I did, and that he was getting shorter floats. Even from my
position 75 feet away I could see he was still using a small dry fly.
A March Brown, obviously, for I had seen him take his hat and
knock down a natural for closer study. But with all that, I still
didn't know why he was taking trout while the rest of us were only
indifferently successful

Anglers are a democratic lot. When he saw I had quit fishing
and was watching him, he motioned me up to his position on a
shingle midway of the pool. "Having trouble with the stream?" he
asked. "Trouble is an understatement," I said. "I am completely
baffled. Here I am using the same dry fly pattern as you are, drop-
ping it with what I hope is fair dry fly technique, and I have only
taken two small trout all morning."

He grinned. "Nothing wrong with your technique. Fact is, I was
just admiring your curve cast when you put your fly around those
rocks in midstream. Ordinarily, it would pay off. But today we have
a different hatch of may flies. These are an imago hatch spinners

64 THE INTANGIBLES OF FLY PATTERNS AND WATER

returning to the water to deposit eggs. What you and most of the
other anglers have been matching is the sub-imago hatch the
nymph coming to the surface from the bottom to break its wing
cases and rest for an appreciable length of time on the water before
becoming air-borne.

"You are matching the time those may flies remain on the surface
before becoming air-borne. My matching duplicates the light touch-
ing of the water this particular may fly achieves in depositing eggs."

It seemed a small thing, but it was the difference between suc-
cessful and unsuccessful presentation, one of the finer nuances of
fly fishing which closer observation would have set right for me.

Another place where an angler can give careful study to the
effect he wants to create with his pattern is the water itself. A fly
pattern's appearance changes with the type of water over which it
is fished. Its appearance can change drastically even during the
course of a drift, regardless of whether you are fishing a wet or
dry fly. Angling limitations are manifest in this, and some very
important fish-taking technique, too.

Those pools on the McKenzie River, with their bright sand and
quartz bottom reflecting light, were perfect for a dark pattern fly
such as a March Brown. A Brown Bi- Visible or a Black Gnat pat-
tern would also have been a good wet or dry fly for that water,
assuming that you had either those small dark-bodied may flies or
black midges to match. But those same hatches over a dark-bot-
tomed pool would have called for an entirely different matching to
duplicate the color which trout associate with the naturals.

An angler must always consider his pattern from the viewpoint
of a trout. For example, a Light Cahill or a Zaddach wet fly would
not appear the same to a trout watching it from the security of an
undercut bank as it would if this trout was directly out in the stream
on feeding station. Nor will it appear the same on a dark day as
during a bright one. To a trout, the Cahill is not the same fly in early
morning and late evening as it appears to be at midday.

Let's examine pattern change during a single fished-out cast.
Here, for a short distance, is a bright sand bottom reflecting sky-
light. Farther along there is a dark cobblestone bottom, the current
broken by granite boulders. Each bit of this water, due to its

THE INTANGIBLES OP RY PATTERNS AND WATER 65

different light reception, drastically changes the appearance of our
fly pattern. If, due to its matching, the fly pattern proves attractive
to trout, it is usually in just one type of water. The pattern cannot
complement both dark and bright water with a complete matching
of the natural insects it imitates.

Naturals, due to their greater transparency, do not undergo great
changes in appearance under different water and light conditions.
A may fly nymph or adult insect appears to a trout as a may fly
nymph or adult under all water conditions. But there must be a
constant change of artificial fly patterns to achieve this norm o
color.

A very good rule for pattern contrast is dark, subdued colors over
bright water, lighter colors over dark water. Suppose an angler is
successful with a March Brown pattern over bright water, while
matching some of the darker colored may flies. As he works along
the stream, taking trout, he comes to a section of darker water.
Here his successful pattern may well prove a failure because it no
longer matches the naturals presently over the water same fly pat-
tern, same naturals as those over the brighter water. The answer
will be found in a lighter pattern such as a dry Light Cahill, or any
one of several small light may fly patterns.

Notice the type of bottom over which you are successful with a
certain type of fly pattern, and your biggest problem of making a
creel of trout is solved. If you have been fishing a dry fly success-
fully, pool after pool, and suddenly your matching goes awry, look
for a change in the bottom to set you right.

This is just as true of wet flies and nymph patterns as it is of dry
flies. One early spring day I fished a clouded, rain-swollen stream
immediately after a heavy storm. The water level was 18 inches
above normal and the shallows extended several feet beyond the
confines of the banks.

My first offering that day was a Buck Nymph a very dark pat-
tern. I fished it without success for a half hour. During this time I
quite thoroughly covered the coffee-colored pools where I normally
took trout when the stream was lower. It was no go. I turned to the
shallows beyond the normal confines of the banks. One small trout
punched my fly on about the tenth cast

66 THE INTANGIBLES OF FLY PATTERNS AND WATER

I immediately changed my fly pattern. This time I tried a
Grumpy, a much lighter-colored fly than the Buck Nymph, and one
which was easier seen in the dark, coffee-colored water. I got action
at once. This trout was a 14-inch cutthroat. I creeled him, then shot
my fly out and across the stream into those fringing shallows. I
wanted to see if a pattern of feeding trout was indicated by those
first and second fish, or if they were just angler's luck. I took three
more trout with my Grumpy Nymph pattern by way of proof that
they were actively foraging and bottom grubbing in those flooded
areas, normally above stream levels.

Then I began to experiment. Could it be that the most attractive
thing about that nymph pattern was its light color? I changed to a
dark pattern, a Fuzzy Worm. This nymph fly has a full dark body
of chenille and is lightly palmered with a dark grey hackle. In nor-
mally clear water it is a very effective nymph pattern.

I sent my fly line out across that rolling brown flood, dropping
this pattern directly in the bordering shallows. I fished out my drift
carefully, even expectantly, but there was no response. Time after
time I got perfect drifts, too.

Was it color alone which produced?

I changed to a Royal Coachman Bucktail. Here is a fly with,
enough white in it to be seen even in the darkest water. Again I
sent my fly line out across the coffee-colored flood water, dropping
my fly in the shallows. First cast there was a slight swirl of brown
water, an almost imperceptible tightening of my leader. I set the
hook gently, fully convinced I had nothing more than a keeper size
trout a conviction which remained only for a second.

My leader angled across the stream with a flair of minute spray
falling away from it. For ten pulse-tingling minutes I had a dogged
battle on my hands. My quarry fought deep, not once breaking the
surface. Eventually I worked hi dose in among the alders and
slipped my landing net under a 3-pound brown trout.

That day I took and released twelve trout in that swollen, mud-
colored stream. It was something of a record for me on such water.
I have been defeated by just such adverse stream conditions in the
past, time after time. But by knowing the rule for matching the

THE INTANGIBLES OF FLY PATTERNS AND WATER 67

over-all stream conditions with the proper colored patterns, my fish-
ing that day was highly successful. Now, when a stream is not
producing, I don't blame the weather, water conditions, or the
perversity of trout in general. I wonder where I have failed. That
is my starting point for getting my fishing back on a paying basis.

THE RIVER

AND

THE FLY ROD

Fly casting, with the delicacy implied in a size 16 wet or dry fly,
or the control and accuracy required in nymph and streamer fly
fishing, is an art which only the most devoted fishermen master. Yet
the fundamentals are as easily learned as spin fishing. They are so
deceptively easy that only a small percentage of fly fishermen
progress beyond the obvious requirements to become truly great
fly fishermen. Many anglers can put a fly on the water within a
distance of about 35 feet with enough finesse to take trout occasion-
ally when a hatch is in progress. Relatively few can take fish when
there isn't some stream activity to supplement their casting. And
that is the ultimate test bringing water to Me when there isn't a
suggestion of trout interest.

I am not suggesting that all requirements of endowing a river
with life are inherent in presentation alone. But I am suggesting that
an angler is greatly handicapped unless he has such mastery of his
presentation that he can stand at the cast, once he decides what is
required in fly pattern and method, and deliver his offering in such
a manner that it achieves the full potential of his fly and method.
Sometimes an angler, through fortuitous circumstances, will get

THE RIVER AND THE FLY ROD 69

more out of his cast than he puts into it. More often this is not true.
When a fly is matched to the water and to the indicated trout food
source, and this matching is complemented by a river-tested method
of fishing still a poor presentation can cancel out the entire related
setup!

The versatility of a fly rod is indicated by the many different casts
designed to match just about any requirement of angling. These
casts should be studied carefully in connection with their stream
application.

Delicacy is always a prime requirement of fly fishing, regardless
of what type of fly is being used. And that brings us up solidly
against the "curve casts/* Take an inside curve cast for example.
Suppose you have a big, wise old brown trout lying under a cut bank
to your left, as you face upstream. You know that nothing short of
a perfectly floated dry fly will interest him. Your fly line must not
touch that small spot of holding water where he lies, or he will
become very suspicious of your efforts and intentions. It is a perfect
setup for an inside curve cast.

Work out a bit of line with a false cast. Now, instead of keeping
your rod close to the vertical on the forward cast, move the tip well
out to the right and forward to about ten o'clock. As your line
unrolls on the forward cast and reaches its limits, check it smartly
by a pull with your left hand. Leader and fly will swing to the left,
well away from your line. The completed cast wiH find your line
lying away from both the leader and fly by at least 3 or 4 feet Only
the fly and leader are in the holding water.

The inside curve cast takes practice, but not nearly so much as
most inexperienced anglers believe. The main thing is to find by
experiment just how hard you must check your line to achieve the
proper left-curving effect of your leader and fly.

The outside curve cast seems a bit more complicated to execute,
but it, too, is easily mastered. Actually it is an incomplete cast. There
are many variations in achieving a presentable outside curve cast,
and here is how I do it to get both accuracy and delicacy.

Start your forward cast underpowered, rod slightly to the right
of perpendicular. Your fly should touch the water at its intended
target while there is still some forward motion in the heavier line.

70 THE RIVER AND THE FLY ROD

As your cast unrolls, and just as your fly does touch the water, bring
your rod tip to the left. All this sounds much more complicated in
the telling than it is in performance. With just a little practice, the
outside curve cast is very easy to master.

The outside and inside curve casts give you a big advantage on
those streams which are heavily fished by none-too-expert anglers.
Almost any presentation can be improved by curve casting. A fly
line makes no contribution to your angling efforts, once it is on the
water. By curve casts you can place it to either side of the critical
holding water. That immediately places your presentation far above
the average in delicacy, the one thing which you must stress on
every cast in heavily fished trout streams.

With curve casts you can pepper those trout hideouts on either
side of the stream with your fly. You can reach around a midstream
boulder to the right or left, dropping your fly without the heavy
fly line in any way distracting from your presentation.

Another cast, easily learned, is of inestimable value when fly
fishing on a stream filled with varying current speeds. This is the
"Lazy S" cast, the invention of Eugene Burns, angling writer and
fishing companion. Burns* Lazy-S cast puts slack in your fly line
at the point needed to keep a fly in position long enough for a trout
to investigate it. It has two advantages over most slack-line casts
intended to accomplish this purpose: delicacy and accuracy.

You can do this cast the first time you try it. And if you are a
dry-fly angler you will recognize its merits first trial, too. Work out
30 feet of fly line. Cast as you would on a straight presentation.
Then, as your line unrolls on the forward cast, waggle your rod tip
from side to side, at the same time releasing your line to let it shoot
forward. The line falls on the water in a series of S-curves.

Examine its stream application. Here you have a granite rock
showing above the surface. The water is slowed to a whisper below
it Bits of foam shimmer and dance to a midstream disturbance,
where a fast section of current moves down beside the boulder. You
must place a dry fly in the lee of this rock. It has to remain in place
without drag whfle a trout takes time to look it over carefully
suspiciously, slowly. In the meantime, that fast-moving section of
current between you and your target is piling your fly out of

Streamers

(Flies labeled from left to right, top to bottom.)

Chappie

Black Nose Dace

Feet's Cain River
Masterpiece

Grey Ghost

Meadow Lake Special

Silver Darter

Spruce

Brown Bucktail

White Marabou

Black Marabou

Golden Darter

Dark Edison
Tiger

Grey Smelt

Mickey Finn

Golden Demon

Carson

Thor

Black Demon

Skynomish Sunrise

Juicy Bug
(Double Hook)

(Courfesy of Wayne Uuszefc, Visalh, California]

Oregon's North Umpqua River, forty miles east of Roseberg. (Oregon State
Highway Commission)

h w h % Z k *l| daeh ' i? fav rite l , wet fl V Prn for brown and rainbow trout. Front
half of body, yellow chenille palmered with badger hackle; rear half, red. Tail,
red. Wing, none.

The roll cast. As the rod is brought forward the line describes a rolling circle.
(Friends Magazine)

The roll cast. The fly drops delicately out to the limits of line and leader.
(Friends Magazine)

*+-

X
o

u-
a. o

^c
O

o
X

-**
CQ

o
oa

J3
Q>

^J UL U_

CO Q fc>

o xx

THE RIVER AND THE FLY ROD 71

position, dragging it across the current, unless you have dropped a
loose line on the water something very easily accomplished with
Bums' Lazy-S cast.

With just a little practice, you can put those S-curves in your fly
line at any point you need themforward if the current demands it,
near the rod tip if that is the faster water. And while the current is
washing them out, your fly remains jauntily in place, without a
suggestion of drag.

Anglers using dry flies are very enthusiastic about this cast. Wet
fly fishermen may not be so readily convinced of its merits. But it
also has possibilities for them. If you are trying for depth, this Lazy-S
cast will give your fly time to sink before being pulled out o place
by the current. It is especially meritorious when you want to make
a deep drift with a nymph pattern. The loose line allows your fly
to really get down on the gravel before being caught up and pulled
out of position by a bellying line.

A fly rod is indeed versatile. Here we have three different casts:
outside and inside curve casts, and the Lazy-S cast. Each cast is
designed to give you delicacy of presentation.

Nothing has yet been said of distance casting. Before taking up
this phase of fly rod use, one must consider what is meant by a long
cast. A Pennsylvania trout angler has one answer to this question;
a Midwestern panfisherman has another answer. Probably both
would settle for something less than sixty feet. But a Western steel-
head angler would boost this up to eighty or ninety feet.

I fish some rivers where you must lay a presentable fly line sev-
enty-five to eighty feet, or few trout will be taken. Where this holds
true on one or two rivers, however, there are hundreds of other trout
and bass streams which make much less demand on an angler's
ability to drop his fly way out there.

Distance, it must always be remembered, is of no advantage
unless it is wedded to fish-taking delicacy. When you reach the
limits of your fish-taking delicacy with your fly, distance beyond this
has no advantage. What point is there in casting your fly a hundred
feet, if you cannot drop it at seventy-five feet with enough finesse
to fool a trout? The place for improvement is in increasing that fish-

72 THE RIVER AND THE FLY ROD

taking limit of your casting, not in increasing your over-all casting
distance.

Your fish-taking distance can be readily improved by careful
use of "line pull." The cast is powered normally in doing this, but as
the backcast is started forward, the left hand is brought down
smoothly to increase the velocity of the line. Then the line is released
to use this extra speed to pull several feet more of line through the
guides. A fly rod, carefully balanced to its line, gives an angler at
least twenty feet more distance by this method, and he can accom-
plish this with the necessary finesse and precision to fool a suspicious
trout or bass.

Large, loose loops are usually held in the line hand in making
this type cast. But there are several shortcomings to this. These large
loops often get entangled when shooting the line, and they are a
nuisance to make on the retrieve.

A better method is to use a handover retrieve in fishing out the
cast, depositing the line in short crisscross loops about eight inches
long, in the palm of the line hand. This handover retrieve is accom-
plished by turning your line hand to grasp the line alternatively,
thumb toward the rod tip, then the little finger. About eight inches
of line is retrieved each time. When the cast is made and the line
pull applied, one has but to open the line hand palm up to release
the shooting line. This method has the added advantage that it is a
very efficient way of working a wet fly or nymph pattern, giving that
erratic movement so attractive to both trout and bass.

Another fly rod cast which will put trout in your creel is the roll
cast. The roll cast is the most beautiful cast of all in execution, and
one of the most important. Quite often, on average trout streams,
there will be occasions when streamside brush will prevent you from
getting a decent backcast. Such situations call for the roll cast.

With fifteen or twenty feet of line lying on the water in front of
you, bring your fly rod back to the vertical or a bit past it, then
switch the rod forward to a nine o'clock position, smoothly. Your
line will describe a rolling circle to drop your fly lightly out to the
limits of your line and leader. You can even release a little slack as
the line rolls forward, gaining a bit more distance. With practice,

THE RIVER AND THE FLY ROD 73

an angler can drop a fly up to thirty-five feet distance with the deli-
cacy needed to take trout under very adverse water conditions*

There are five different fly rod casts, and none of them are com-
plicated or beyond the ability of the average angler. But mark this:
in each of those casts, practice makes for delicacy. The more prac-
tice, the more delicacy acquired a prime essential of all fly fishing.

FLY LINES

Fly lines are classified in this fashion: a double taper line for
careful dry fly, upstream work; and a torpedo head line for long-
range casting, especially for steelhead and Atlantic salmon. The
level fly line is obsolete, with little justification for its use.

Those are the generalizations. There are many exceptions. Dou-
ble-taper fly lines, for example, are probably the most useful of any
type fly line for general fishing. There are few stream situations in
which they are not as good as other fly lines, if not superior to them.
They are far superior for delicate dry fly work, and they also serve
admirably for wet flies, streamers, and nymphs.

How far can a fly be dropped with a double-taper fly line?
Wouldn't a torpedo head line better serve a fisherman who has
occasional casts of fifty to sixty feet? The answer is "no," unless there
are more than just occasional casts requiring fifty feet or more for
distance. At distances less than sixty feet, a double-taper fly line will
serve admirably.

Most anglers, unfortunately, place too much emphasis on distance
in fly fishing, and not enough on delicacy. Those long casts of sixty,
eighty, and a hundred feet sound wonderful in the telling. Rela-
tively few, however, will produce fish which cannot be taken better
by careful wading and the more delicate presentation obtained by
shorter casts. Long casts have been overemphasized by angling
writers since the discovery of the torpedo head lines.

FLY LINES 75

I recall the concern of an Eastern trout fisherman over his ability
to make those long shots he thought were required to take steelhead
on the Rogue River. I assured him that most steelhead fishermen
would envy him his careful, precise presentation, perfected on brown
trout in Pennsylvania. But he was dubious. Next day, though, it was
a different story. Instead of finding his Eastern trout technique, with
its short delicate casts, a handicap, he was high rod in our party.

I doubt if he made a cast over fifty-five feet all day. By carefully
studying the approach to those pockets and slicks where the steel-
head lay, he managed to reach all fishable water. The river, being
low for the season, responded beautifully to his delicate presenta-
tion.

For the record, he was using a 9-foot, 5-ounce fly rod, and a silk
double-taper HDH fly line. His line was carefully matched to the
type of fishing he habitually does on his Eastern trout streams. The
front taper, which is all-important, consisted of about a foot of
level-H size, then a taper of nine feet to a full D size. There is a very
practical consideration in this, directly tied in with the average
length of those middle-distance casts. If a fly isn't turning over
properly on the cast, the front taper of the fly line should come under
suspicion. A poorly matched leader could be at fault, too. But it is
more likely an improper taper which is causing the trouble.

At fifty or sixty feet or farther casting distance, a long taper is
best. But if you are using your fly rod for shorter casts on smaller
streams, a long taper will not turn over your fly properly, nor will it
straighten your leader as it should.

Suppose you are using a nine-foot leader, and the taper of your
fly line is nine feet. That adds up to eighteen feet of line and leader
which is not contributing any great amount of the required weight
to bring out the action of the rod, which in turn determines the
velocity of the line on the forward cast and its proper turnover.
Increase this casting distance to twenty-five feet and there is still
very little heavy line beyond the rod tip. Your rod is so woefully
underloaded that it is impossible to get either accuracy or delicacy.

The remedy is to shorten the taper. Start by cutting off a foot,
then test your casting at average stream distances. As you shorten
the taper, you bring more heavy line beyond the rod tip for the

76 FLY LINES

shorter casts. You load your rod. By the time a taper of from seven
to nine feet is reached, other things being equal, you are in balance
for any distance from twenty-five to around forty-five feet. Delicacy
and accuracy are remarkably improved.

For distance work, torpedo head lines are indicated. The dimen-
sions of these fly lines are about as follows: H or G, 2 to 4 feet; then
a taper of from 12 to 18 feet to C, B, or A. Usually there is from
20 to 25 feet of this heavier gauge belly line, then a short taper to
an F running line. Forward tapers on these torpedo head lines are
often trimmed shorter than this, to bring them in balance for casts
around fifty to sixty feet on steelhead streams.

Rod balance is brought about by proper fly line selection. In this
connection, it is interesting to compare the double taper and tor-
pedo head lines. A rod which would be nicely loaded with about
thirty-five feet of double taper HDH fly line, requires an HCF
torpedo head line to balance it. I have one such rod, a 9-foot,
5-ounce rod of medium action which takes such a double taper, with
a 9-foot taper. When using a torpedo head line, it is brought in
balance as follows: 1 foot of H, 9 feet of taper to size C, 20 feet of
C, then a sharp taper to an F running line.

I use a heavier outfit for bass and wide steelhead rivers a
double taper GBG and a GAP torpedo head line. This last has 12
feet of taper and 26 feet of belly line. It is strictly a distance line,
used on a heavy 5.75-ounce, 9-foot rod. A day's fishing with it is
very tiring.

These torpedo head lines are wonderful when most of the casting
is around fifty, sixty, and up to eighty-five feet. But there has been a
lot of loose talk about stream casts of from a hundred to a hundred
and forty feet. With all my knocking about the rivers, fishing for
everything from panfish to salmon, I have yet to see the fly fisherman
who can get those distances.

Steelhead rivers of the West have more distance-pushing fly
fishermen than any other portion of the country. But ninety-five per
cent of the casts, even on these broad waters, fall within seventy-
five feet. Getting a hundred and twenty-five feet on a casting plat-
form is one thing; getting seventy-five feet distance with your fly

FLY LINES 77

when the water is lapping at the top of your boots is something else
again.

In addition to the various tapers, fly lines can further be divided
into three types: those which require dressing to make them float;
those designed to float without dressing, and those designed to sink
readily.

Typical sinking fly lines are made slightly smaller in diameter,
for the same weight, than ordinary fly lines. Thus a sinking line
having the weight of a GBF torpedo head line will have a calibra-
tion of about HCF. That must be remembered in fitting a sinking
fly line to a rod.

On big pools, where trout, steelhead, or salmon are lying deep,
a sinking fly line can often be used to get a fly down on the gravel
when all other methods fail.

It is more difficult to pick up a sinking fly line for the cast. The
best method, when it is possible, is to work out the cast, allowing
the line to drift into that section of the pool where the current tends
to surface. Here, with the water forcing the line upward, it can be
picked off the surface much more easily and with far less strain on
the fly rod.

The floating fly line is much more useful to the average angler
than the sinker. A floater will stay on the surface all day without
dressing of any kind. Here you have just the opposite of a sinking
fly line. It is one size larger in calibration than the ordinary fly line
of equivalent weight. This will reduce the distance of longer casts
by a few feet, but it has other angling virtues which make up for it.

There is definitely a place for this floating fly line in short up-
stream dry fly angling. Anglers are constantly canvassing ways and
means of floating a line for a full day's fishing, but to my knowledge
there isn't a conventional fly line dressing available which will keep
an ordinary fly line on the surface for a half day's fishing. And once
a fly line is saturated with water there is little an angler can do about
it, for the line cannot be dressed properly until it is thoroughly dried.
My solution, before these floating fly lines came on the market, was
to carry two or three extra lines, replacing the water-logged ones at
intervals during a day on the stream. The floating fly line should
solve that problem, once and for alL

78 FLY LINES

Dry fly fishing isn't all the story when an angler is considering
the merits of these floating fly lines. There are many advantages in
floating a fly line while using nymphs or conventional wet flies (see
Chapter 3). A sinking fly line, a conventional fly line, and a floating
fly line complement each other over the season, and an angler can
use all three types in his fishing.

Little has been said about the quality of material in the average
American or English fly lines. In the better grades, they are all of
excellent quality. Until a few years ago, silk was the superior fly
line material. All the better grades were made from it. But recently,
some very good nylon lines have come on the market. The best of
these are almost as good as the best silk fly lines. They run almost
one size larger than silk lines of equivalent weight, and some anglers
find that an objection.

American lines, as a rule, will be found more uniform in calibra-
tion than English lines. But in fitting a rod, there is enough differ-
ence in weight in designated sizes to require close attention, lest you
overload or underload it. This is something which is easily done if
you rely entirely on size designations, even in American lines.

English fly lines usually have the best finish, and when carefully
fitted to an individual rod will outlast American lines. That problem
of fitting is complicated by the fact of less standardization. And that
makes them less attractive.

A good rule is to buy fly lines of a bit higher grade than you can
afford; you will never be sorry for that.

CUSTOM FLY RODS

Every fly fisherman eventually wants a custom rod. Usually,
after several seasons of fly fishing, a beautiful bamboo is acquired.
Having gone through this phase of angling several times, I have
some very decided opinions on the selection and fitting of a cus-
tom rod.

As I see it, the first consideration is the selection of a reputable
rod maker. This should be done with the same care used in selecting
a family physician. And, like the family physician, your rod maker
must put a very discerning finger on your angling "pulse" to come
up with just the right cure for your rod ailments. A custom rod is
never a matter of laying your money on the line and walking off with
a fly rod that is the best possible selection for you. Individual differ-
ences in the approach to exactly the same angling situations preclude
this. A good rod selection for one angler is often unsatisfactory for
another, even though they both fish the same streams.

My friend Dough Merrick of R. L. Winston Rods, one of the top
craftsmen, has several questions which he likes to have answered
before he begins the task of putting a custom fly rod together.
"What.type of fishing do you do? Will you use this rod for dry flies,
wet flies, or both? Have you some favorite line size? Do you play a
fish in close, roughing frm> up, or do you prefer to wait out the
situation, letting the fish tire?'* Those questions, honestly answered
and followed out to their logical conclusions in handcrafted bam-

SO CUSTOM FLY RODS

boo, will put you on a stream with a superior instrument in your
hand. Of course, your preferred rod length, weight, and such are
also important. But the over-all consideration is relating the rod to
your peculiarities of fishing.

I have such a rod, built by this craftsman Dough Merrick. This
rod was the subject of several long letters, which enabled him to
translate those basic questions into a finished bamboo. Take that
first question, "What type of fishing do you do?" I explained that I
wanted the rod for general stream work, trout mostly, using both
dry and wet flies occasionally nymphs. But mostly for dry flies.
See how that affects the action? Obviously, one cannot expect the
utmost in a nymph or wet-fly rod with a very stiff tip-centered
action. Wets and nymph patterns can be fished with such a rod, but
it isn't the best for the purpose.

I had in mind a rod for the back country, where it is impossible
to carry two or three, changing from one to another as the exigencies
of fishing demanded. Obviously, there had to be a whale of a
compromise.

I like a fast-action rod, but one which works well down toward
the butt under stress. Dough Merrick simply took out the stiff action
beyond that required for dry flies, and gave the rod just a bit more
butt action. That made it a spang-up job for wet flies and nymphs,
enabling me to fish it very fine, the sensitive tip translating the least
touch of a fly by a trout into something felt by the rod. But still
there was enough stiffness to make it a good dry-fly rod. I have used
it on those back-country streams and like it so much that I find
myself using it more and more in home waters, where my choice of
rods is not so restricted.

A general-purpose rod, to get back to our original thesis, indi-
cates a length and weight which are not tiring during a day's fishing;
O3*e which, like this Winston, can be used on wets, nymphs, and
dries.

I asked for a rod not over eight feet in length, and not over 4Vfc
ounces in weight; the closer this figure approached 4 ounces, the
better, without changes in other specifications.

The finished rod weighed in at 4 1 A ounces and is a beautiful thing
to cast plenty of backbone for distance, and plenty of delicacy

CUSTOM FLY RODS 81

for dropping a size 14 dry in upstream dry-fly fishing. Most of my
casting falls within 40 feet; a little is done at 50. But when I am
steelheading, and the water is low and clear, such as often happens
on the Rogue River, then a cast of 80 feet is often imperative. The
middle distances, however, are the important ones.

Those middle distances make lines doubly important. I like
nothing larger than an HCF for trout. Rods requiring larger lines
than this make low, clear-water fishing very difficult because it is
almost impossible to get the required delicacy of presentation. Find-
ing the best line for this superior piece of bamboo required a lot of
testing and trying. Eventually it was found that a slightly oversized
HCF Cortland fitted it like a glove. I like the long belly of this line.
A shorter belly section, like that found on other three-dimensional
lines, requires at least one size larger line for the same action rod.

Lines are not very uniform in calibration. Little differences creep
in, and one HCF will not handle exactly the same as the next,
although a superior rod will handle these slight differences quite
easily. The closer you come to just the ideal weight, however, the
better will be the results from your rod.

Casts of seventy-five feet were made with this rod and line with-
out the least forcing. And in upstream dry fly work, a cast of 20 to
80 feet could be put down with a delicacy unequalled by any rod
I own. The finished outfit is one of the best all-around fly rods I
have ever used. I have only taken two steelhead with it, but it
handled excellently, displaying the required backbone needed to
loll these big sea-run rainbows.

Before you decide on a custom rod, get your fishing problem in
focus. There is a best rod for your bass bugging, a best rod for
nymphing, for dry flies, and for wet flies. A rod designed for dis-
tance casting on steelhead rivers cannot possibly be the best choice
for average dry- or wet-fly trout fishing.

There are two extremes to avoid in a custom rod, or in any rod
for that matter: the extremely heavy, powerful rod, and the ex-
tremely light rod, the use of which comes under the category of
stunt fishing. I have a beautiful 9-foot, 5v-ounce steelhead rod
which cost me $125. 1 doubt, however, if this rod is out of its case
three times during a steelhead season. It is a man-killer- slow,

82 CUSTOM FLY RODS

powerful action, using a GAF three-dimensional line. Sure, it will
drop a steelhead fly well out beyond the hundred-foot mark, and
it will fight a sea-run rainbow to a standstill in heavy water. But it is
not a good companion for a full day's casting.

More and more, even on steelhead rivers, I find myself in com-
pany with many other anglers using 8- and 8y-foot, 4-to-5-ounce
rods. I like the feel of my Winston 8-foot, 4 1 /-ounce rod for most
steelhead. For a spare rod I carry a 5-ounce, medium-action, 9-foot
rod.

Occasionally you will read of some expert taking his Atlantic
salmon on a 7-foot, 2^-ounce rod. This is the other extreme an
angler should avoid in selecting a rod. Taking such heavy fish on
this extremely light bamboo sounds thrilling in the telling. But don't
be too greatly influenced. That same angler hasn't reported how
many times he has failed with this same rod. Such light rods have a
place for dry-fly work on small streams where the trout are not
large. In the hands of a truly great fly rod artist they will take
Atlantic salmon or steelhead. Still, they are not the best selection.
You limit yourself severely if you use them for fish beyond their
capacity.

The lower limit for weight in a rod designed for all-around trout
and bass fishing should be about 3 1 A ounces. The top limit for com-
fortable, all-day casting is 5 ounces, and the best compromise is a
rod around 7 ! /4 to 8 feet long, with a weight of from &A to 4V5
ounces. Stay within these limits and you will come up with a rod
which is pleasant to use, and which will give a good account of
itself. But don't expect to send a bass bug sizzling way out there
with a rod designed for strictly dry fly, short-range upstream fishing.
On the other hand, don't get one of those so-called bass bugging
rods weighing 6 ounces and expect it to be very versatile. Com-
promise! Bass bugs can be made smaller, if you tie your own flies,
or have a fly tyer who will listen to reason. They can also be handled
much more pleasantly and effectively on a 4V-ounce, 8-foot rod.

Last but not least comes the question of price. Custom-crafted fly
rods are never cheap, but when you consider the many seasons of
fishing built into each one, they are not expensive in the long run.
Prices for top-grade rods will range from $75 on up-with plenty of

CUSTOM FLY RODS 83

up on the best grades. There simply isn't any substitute for quality,
and that you get in a custom rod. I can think of nothing which will
pay you greater dividends in downright pleasure than such a rod,
matched to your particular angling and your particular manner of
fishing.

FLY ROD KITS

There is another approach to the problem of getting just the right
rod for your angling. Several firms are presently making rod kits
which the angler is supposed to put together to make his own rod.
These kits are available for spinning rods, bait casting rods, and
fly rods. Materials for finished rods in a variety of lengths and actions
are also available.

Maybe you, like myself, have been on the verge of buying such
a kit but have questioned your ability to put it together. Just
remembering how bumble-fingered I am has prevented me from
attempting the job. Finally I purchased a fly rod kit. When it arrived
and I opened it up, I confess I had plenty of skepticism about my
ability to put all those pieces together into an acceptable fly rod.
There just seemed to be too much painstaking detail for someone
not gifted with manual dexterity. But there was an instruction
pamphlet with the kit.

Taking each item as instructed, and not looking forward to any-
thing beyond getting this item fitted properly, I started to work on
my fly rod. The project called for a fly rod with a dry-fly action,
length 7y% feet, with a finished weight of 4 ounces. I started work-
ing on the reel seat, placing the round cork disks on the butt section
of bamboo, sanding each disk down to a tight fit, then carefully
gjuing them as I worked. From this I turned to the actual grip.
Tliese two Jobs appeared to be the most difficult and complicated.

FLY ROD KITS 85

I thought that if I didn't go wrong here, seating the ferrules and
winding guides and putting on the tips would be comparatively
easy.

Now, after finishing the rod, following those instructions to the
letter, I find myself hard put to single out any one part of the task
which wasn't very easily accomplished.

The unfinished grip afforded me a chance to work out my own
ideas about proper length and shape. The ovals of cork were easily
slipped on after the reel seat was in place. Each oval was glued and
forced down tightly in place. After all these ovals are in place, and
the glue has had time to dry, any grip shape can be had by careful
sandpapering. If you care for the Payne style grip, or the Hardy,
Philippe, Half Wells, or Full Wells grip, they are all illustrated in the
instructions.

I decided on a fairly large, hand-filling Half WeHs grip. It is the
one I find the least tiring during a day's casting. But a note of warn-
ing should be injected here. No matter what type of grip you decide
upon, leave it plenty large in thickness. Test it by fishing a day.
Take your sandpaper on the stream with you and work out the
problem there. Go cautiously and sandpaper down very frugally.
Don't be afraid to deviate from standard grips, if you find such
deviation gives you more comfort, accuracy, and delicacy in casting.
It is surprising how often a little change in grip shape will ease the
ache of casting all day with a fly rod, especially if you are using dry
flies.

The proper fit of a grip must take into consideration the length
as well as other dimensions, so give careful consideration to this
phase of the task. In making a fly rod from one of these kits, grip
length is obtained by adding the right number of cork ovals. It is
always better to have the grip a bit longer than what you think you
require, for it is sometimes restful to move the casting hand back-
ward or forward on the grip for a few casts.

A much neater job of guide winding can be obtained if you use
a small "rod winding machine." These can be bought from the same
source as the rod kits, and are very inexpensive. Proper winding
thread tension is easily maintained with it, making the finished job

86 FLY ROD KITS

much more professional in appearance. It will also find employment
when you are rewinding other fishing rods.

The place where you must go slow and carefully in this rod
making is in varnishing and finishing, but if you follow instructions
you will have no difficulty. Just remember that the casting quality
of a good rod can be killed by a too liberal application of varnish.

Decide what shade of browntone you want for your rod, then
stain it before attempting to varnish. The problem of getting just
the right color is simple. Rod stain can be wiped off with a cloth
after drying, so the best method is to apply a generous amount, then
carefully wipe the bamboo until you arrive at the shade you like.
Some anglers prefer the natural bamboo color, and varnish their
rods without staining. It is a matter of individual preference, really,
for the color has nothing to do with the casting qualities.

After applying the stain and obtaining the proper shade, the
varnishing begins. Forget about brushes. Use either a cotton, lint-
free cloth to apply the varnish, or better yet, use your fingers. Care-
fully smooth on a very thin application of varnish. Let the rod dry
for at least twenty-four hours, longer if necessary to get a dry, flint-
like finish. Then apply another coating. The instructions with my
kit called for three very light coats of varnish. I found these gave
my rod a very nice finish, comparing favorably with rods of mine
in the $50 price range.

There are two questions which anglers ask in connection with
these rod kits. What price must one pay to get a quality kit, some-
thing which will produce a superior rod? This kit I used cost $12.95.
How much time does it take? My work sheet showed that I spent a
total of eight hours to complete my fly rod. This, of course, was
divided into periods of a half hour or so. And it didn't include the
time I waited for glue to set, and for varnish to dry.

The completed rod felt nice in my hands, but beauty is as beauty
does! I had those brushy trout streams in mind, where rainbows
like a dry fly if it is delicately presented. I wanted something
which would drop a size 14 dry fly at 50 feet. More important, I
wanted to ease that fly on the water without disturbance at 20 to 25
feet I wanted a rod which would pick that fly off the surface,
leaving only a dimple of water to show this had been achieved. All

The proper line for short casts, such as this, is not the best choice for 50- to
60-foot casts.

The Deschutes River broadens out as it flows through the Warm Springs Indian
Reservation. (Oregon State Highway Commission)

A fly line matched to both rod and water made its contribution to hooking this fish.

A typical fly rod kit excellent employment for an angler on winter evenings.
(Herfer's Inc.)

Spinning Lures

From left to right: Andy Gump spinner, number 4, copper and nickle. Same in size 5. These
two spinners are excellent when fished with a worm in early season. Colorado spinner, size 3/0,
copper. Gold-plated willow leaf with matching streamer fly. Gold-plated Colorado, size 2/0.
Hammered brass, Colorado, size 3/0* Double blade, nickle. Hellion Wobblers; copper; white,
red, and silver; silver and yellow. Flatfish. Fly rod Hellion Wobbler, fly rod spinner.

All excellent trout and bass lures.

o
a

FLY ROD KITS 87

these requirements seem like a big order, but they were accom-
plished.

A 4-ounce, 7i4-foot rod is tricky to fit with a proper line. I tried
this one with a level-E size to get the feel of the rod. It cast fairly
well with it, but the line was too light for the rod's punchy dry fly
action. Then I rigged it with a light HGF torpedo head line, which
proved to be exactly right for the action. The rod responded with
that elusive something which all fly rods of superior bamboo have.
The line sang through the guides when I shot it. It dropped a fly
beautifully at 50 to 60 feet. Ordinarily, for such small streams as
this rod was made for, a double taper fly line is indicated, but this
HCF was so obviously suited to the rod, I probably will never
change it.

I am ending this chapter by answering one more question. Sure,
you can make up one of those rod kits! And in the process you will
be able to get a very superior fly rod, bait, or spinning rod, and have
a very nice feeling of achievement in doing so.

SPINNING

Spinning is not a new method of fishing. It has been used in
England and on the Continent for a good many years, but only
during the past two decades has it been taken up by American
anglers. Now it is being used on everything from bullhead to trout.

Spinning has been called a cure-all method of fishing by some
of its devotees. Dyed-in-the-wool fly fishermen have called it a
number of things not quite so complimentary. It is trite to say it
has found its place in American angling. It is more to the point to
examine its merits and limitations. When we do this we find it
deserves a place between the extreme viewpoints of the spinning
enthusiast and the fly fisherman.

Spinning is not going to make all other methods of angling
obsolete you may be sure of that. In its place it is effective, but
when you try to make it take the place of fly fishing, or of some
forms of bait casting, it is less effective than the methods it tries
to displace. Spinning's position in angling is with those light lures
intermediate between bait and fly rod fishing; it bridges the gap
between those two methods of angling. There are days when a bait
rod will not pay off on bass, times when a fly rod is not the most
effective means of taking trout on the high, silt-laden streams of
early spring. For such situations a .spinning outfit is ideal.

There are plenty of good bass fishermen, though, who confine
all their fishing to the use of a spinning rod. They use those small

SPINNING 89

1 A- to Bounce plugs, wobblers, and weighted spinners. Very effec-
tive they are, too. Such spinning lures are naturals for sharpshooting
the small openings and pockets among the cattails and lily pads.

One universal appeal of spinning is that most inexperienced
anglers believe that they automatically become experts just by pur-
chasing a spinning outfit. But, like any other method of fishing,
spinning requires plenty of practice to develop the casting skill
which makes it most effective. True, even the greenest tyro can cast
a fairly presentable line with a spinning outfit, right from the start.
And he will take some fish on his very first fishing trip. But to realize
the full fish-taking potential of spinning is something else again.
Too many anglers are using this method of fishing without realizing
how it responds to improved casting technique. They achieve an
ability to cast forty feet with a spinning outfit, find they can take
fish occasionally, and that is that.

The two most common requirements of all angling accuracy and
delicacy are inherent in spinning, but it takes practice, study, and
experiment to bring them out. Once I watched an expert with a
spinning outfit work a willow-fringed shore line of a Idee. He was
casting from a boat at a time when few anglers were making any
catch at all. But those shy, large-mouth bass lying under those
willows were setups for his careful casting. Only a Devon Minnow,
dropped lightly under the branches of those willows, where the
dark water outlined a small shadowed area, would interest them.

Time after time I watched that tiny silver explosion in the brown
water as his cast snaked out, and the Devon Minnow dropped in
those gloomy pockets with a small splash. In many places, willow
branches came down within a foot of the water, but not once did
I see this angler in trouble with his spinning outfit. He would cast
from about forty feet, and his uncanny accuracy and skill paid off
with three good bass during the morning's fishing.

Here was both accuracy and delicacy. I must also note the more
obvious part of this technique which is often overlooked. As I keep
emphasizing, accuracy and delicacy are basic in all fishing. They are
the how of angling. But of equal importance is the where. This
angler not only had the skill to drop his lure with accuracy and
delicacy; he also knew where to drop it

90 SPINNING

Quite a number o spinning devotees have yet to learn the latter
part of this art. This is much more true of spinning than it is of fly
fishing. For fly fishing is not so easily mastered, and when an angler
approaches a fair degree of skill with a fly rod he has spent enough
time on the water to know a bit about the where of casting.

A comparatively new method like spinning if it can still be
called new is bound to have an excess of zeal attached to it. Many
American anglers turned to spinning convinced that they had the
all-around best method of angling at their fingertips. But there is in
progress a marked shakedown and adjustment to the limitations of
the method. You no longer hear so much about using flies with a
spinning outfit a very nice thing. Flies should be left to fly rod
fishing with one exception.

That one exception brings spinning into the picture when "dap-
ping** flies for bass or panfish. A small plastic ball, partly filled with
water to give it weight for spin casting, is attached to the end of
the monofilament line. This ball is never filled so completely that
it doesn't float. Several feet behind the ball a dropper leader is
attached to the line. This should be about two feet long. With this
rig you can duplicate a may fly touching the water as it deposits
eggs. You can also imitate a terrestrial fly caught on the surface and
trying to arise.

Cast into acceptable bass water, let your lure rest for a moment
until all disturbance has subsided. Raise your rod until the dropper
fly is clear of the surface, then lower it, and dap the fly gently on
the surface. A bass, panfish, or trout finds this action very attractive.
Often, when one is angling with a spinning outfit, and they are not
striking other lures, this method of dapping a fly will save an other-
wise barren day.

Spinning has more possibilities in other directions. The Devon
Minnows, Spinners, and Wobblers cast like a dream with a spinning
outfit. One season, when the great runs of winter steelhead were
entering West Coast streams, spin fishing was very much in evi-
dence. Many steelhead were taken with spinning outfits using a
*T>erry" of salmon eggs and a Bounce sinker to get it down on the
bottom. Red and white Daredevle, Flat Fish, Hellion Wobblers, and
Russle-lures were also very effective with a spinning outfit.

SPINNING 91

Most steelhead anglers using spinning rods and reels had con-
verted from heavier bait casting outfits. Practically all of them I
interviewed felt spinning was the more effective and sporting
method of taking winter steelhead.

During these later winter steelhead runs, there are but few rivers
and fewer days when flies can be used with success. The choice is
either to use a spinning or bait outfit or not fish. To my notion,
spinning is definitely the more sporting method of the two. Get a
twenty-pound rampaging steelhead on an eight- or ten-pound test
monofilament nylon line, and you need make no apology for the
fact that you didn't take him on a fly rod and fly.

Spinning reels are varied and very interesting. They actually fall
into two basic types: those designed with outside line pickup, for
the conventional spinning rod, and another type, resembling a fly
reel in appearance, which is often used on a fly rod. I find this latter
type very convenient, in that I can carry such a reel while fly
fishing. Then, if the exigencies of weather and water so indicate, I
can change from fly to spinning without trouble.

The use of this reel on a fly rod has certain analogies which simu-
late fly casting, too. The line, like the fly line, is held in the left hand,
using the right hand for casting. At least that is my way of using a
spinning reel on a fly rod, and I like the old familiar feel of a line in
my left hand.

My spin reel, used on a fly rod, has another virtue which has
saved me several large fish. It has a star drag which can be set
two or three pounds less than the breaking strength of the line.
Then, when a heavy bass, steelhead, or trout surges against the line,
there is little chance of breakage.

A fly rod spinning reel is not indicated for one of those pet 2, 3,
or 3Y* ounce dry fly rods. In order to handle the usual spinning
lures, die rod should weigh from 4i4 to 5Yz ounces and have a fairly
punchy action.

Conventional spinning rods, for all-around fishing, should have a
center-tipped action, should weigh about 4 to 4v ounces, and
should be 7 feet in length. Many anglers use a shorter rod than this.
Some swear by a 5-foot, 3-ounce spinning rod, but the longer lengths

92 SPINNING

will give more control and delicacy, and are to be recommended for
average all-around angling.

A monofilament nylon line is almost standard for spin fishing. It
should be soft, as most of the better grades of monofilament are,
especially those of recent manufacture. It should be as light as will
consistently handle the fish you are after. For ordinary trout or bass
fishing, a line testing not more than 4 pounds is ideal, unless you are
fishing in water abounding with lily pads and snags; then you must
have a heavier line to keep your quarry away from these entangle-
ments. For steelhead, salmon, and other heavy fish, you need a line
testing around 6 to 8 pounds. Lines heavier than this are hard to
cast, and they cancel out the inherent delicacy of presentation of
this angling method.

Spinning is no magic way of taking fish. On the contrary, its
attraction is the fact that it has such a large fish-taking potential
but one which is only realized after long, careful study and practice.

HOOKS

Primitive man had his crude hooks made of copper, bone, and
even gold. It is supposed that these hooks were the outgrowth of the
gorge, a straight piece of wood or bone with a line attached to the
middle. The baited gorge was dropped into a stream or lake, then
old Cro-Magnon man awaited results. When a fish swallowed it, he
jerked the line, causing the gorge to turn crosswise in its throat.

It is a far cry from such fishing to a modern angler using a num-
ber 16 dry fly, with a fine 9-foot leader. And the rewards for the
present-day fisherman are much richer. Uncle Cro-Magnon, con-
stantly hungry, fished of necessity; the modern angler fishes for
recreation.

Primitive man couldn't have been completely unaware of the
downright pleasure of fishing, even with his crude hooks and gorges.
And slabs of salmon over his campfires must have had their mo-
ments, too. His fishing and hunting inspired him to great picture
painting on his cave walls evidence of his activities which has
endured to this day.

It is entirely possible that he also planned his equipment very
carefully, and we know he was never satisfied, for he was constantly
improving his hooks, lines, and nets. Sometimes, when we are using
a delicate creation, such as a number 16 dry fly, it would be nice to
pause and consider these beginnings. How limited were the selec-
tions from which primitive man had to choose his equipment!

94 HOOKS

You, too, can limit the effectiveness of your fishing unless you
make a careful study of available hooks and their use. Often a
change of method entails a change of hook type for best results.
A surprising number of modern-day anglers consider hooks but
prosaic pieces of angling equipment, utterly lacking in individuality.
But the fisherman coming home with a heavy creel is very hook-
conscious. You may be able to suggest his bait or lure and tell him
what fly pattern is best suited to the water. But when it comes to
hooks he will have some very definite preferences because he knows
the important part hooks play in taking fish.

I am reminded of a very experienced bullhead fisherman of my
acquaintance who selects hooks with a methodical carefulness
usually associated with more refined angling, such as dry fly fishing.
He had an innovation in bullhead hooks which is worth remarking
on because it was so simple and effective.

A bullhead will swallow a hook and worm completely. When he
is landed, he will lie there on the bank, staring at you with fishy
eyes, defying your best efforts to remove the hook without feeling
those sharp barbs with which nature endowed him.

Disgorgers may be used, of course. You may even cut the line at
the hook eye and recover it when you clean your fish. But these are
frustrating alternatives to the problem of recovering your hook and
worm immediately, mundane matters which distract from the serious
occupation of brooding over good bullhead water on a quiet, warm
summer evening.

This wise old cat fisherman solders small finishing nails crosswise
on the heavy, long-shanked hooks he uses. The nail is placed about
two-thirds die distance from the bend of the hook. When a bull-
head methodically swallows this offering down to the cross-soldered
nail, he is stymied. He twitches the bait, unquestionably provoked
by his inability to get the hook and worm down any farther. Then,
being of a philosophical turn of mind, he pauses to reflect on the
perversity of worms growing tails with crosstrees. When he is gently
led to his fate, enough hook protrudes from his mouth to allow him
to be easily disengaged.

HOOKS 75

This might be called a special purpose hook. There are others,
not home-contrived, which are also designed for special angling
situations.

Have you ever used one of those long-shanked hooks with a
built-in safety pin on which to impale a grasshopper or other bait?
I think if I were confined to just one type of hook I would select this
one for my fishing. They come in sizes from 1 to 8, and can be used
either with a fly rod or bait-casting outfit. In bass waters these hooks
are very productive with a small minnow or frog impaled on that
pin. Where there are bluegill or crappie, they are excellent fish takers
with a grasshopper, used on a size 6 hook.

I like trout fishing with flies, both wet and dry. But on occasion,
when a big brown has grown wise to the way of anglers and is
suspicious of all those beautiful creations of fur and feathers, a
grasshopper near his hideout is in order. This hook, with its attached
pin, is made to order for the occasion. All one has to do is to select
a number 8 hook of this type, impale a grasshopper, use a plenty
fine leader, then drop this offering near his hideout. It is irresistible.

This type of hook is also good for channel catfish when they are
in fairly shallow water. Load it, just as you would for that big brown
trout, using a larger hook and a heavier leader, but still retaining
your fly rod. Cast quartering upstream, allow the current to drift
your grasshopper along the bottom, and be set for some wonderful
action. It is an experience which will completely contradict those
anglers who say that a channel cat is no fighter.

Hook designations are interesting in indicating those best suited
for various methods of fishing. A 4X stout hook is not made for dry-
fly fishing. For a fly designed to float, 2X fine is a much better choice.
Those esoteric terms are simple and easily understood, once they are
mastered. They show the length and size of wire used in making
hooks for various angling purposes. For example, a 4X stout hook is
one using wire normally used in hooks f our sizes larger than the one
designated. Thus, a size 8, 4X stout is a hook made from wire ordi-
narily used in a size 2, but of a size 8. If this same size 8 were not
made of heavier wire than standard for its size, it would be indicated
as size 8 regular.

96 HOOKS

For wet flies and nymphs, where it is important to fish deep,
experienced anglers select flies tied on heavier wire, ranging from
2X to 4X stout. Dry flies, selected with their floating qualities in
mind, have just the reverse requirement. These dainty creations
must be buoyant, floating high on the surface, with just the tips of
the stiff hackles touching the water. Light wire is required for this,
and either 2X or 3X fine is usually employed in tying dry flies. A
typical dry-fly hook is a size 12, 2X fine. That means die wire used
is of the size employed in making a size 14 regular hook.

Sometimes, in tying a Bi-Visible or Spider Variant dry fly, one
wants a shorter hook, as well as one tied with lighter wire. Lengths
are also indicated in X's. Just remember that the number of X's
indicate some deviation from normal hook construction, with the
word following indicating the deviation. A shorter than normal dry
fly hook would be indicated thus: size 12, 2X fine, 2X short. The only
"regular'' factor of such a hook would be in the "bite." Otherwise, it
is 2 sizes shorter than normal, and made of wire 2 sizes smaller than
normal.

Streamer flies are usually tied on hooks two or three times longer
than regular for a given size. A very popular size for both trout and
bass is a number 8, regular, 3X long.

Points and bends are of many variations and types. A hollow
point is more often found on fly hooks. This point has a slight incurve
from barb to tip, inside the bite. The outside of the point is straight
or only slightly incurved. Its chief merit is that it is very easily set
on the strike. When a fish is just dumping" a fly a hollow-point hook
will be taken solidly enough to hold during the flurry of playing and
netting the quarry.

A Dublin point also has a slight incurve, but is more heavily
constructed in cross-section than a hollow point. It is a very good
holding hook, however, and many fishermen prefer it for some of the
heavier fish such as Atlantic salmon.

A beak point is very popular with fishermen using salmon eggs
and similar bait. This hook is usually selected with a turned-up eye,
2 or 3X short. The beak point is very close to the line of pull, in-
curved as it is, and when tike hook is set it affords very deep penetra-

HOOKS 97

tion. This is always a necessity for a hook used with bait, which must
penetrate the lip of the fish and strip through the bait, as well.

Hold a hook with the point down, the bend toward you, and if the
point is offset to the left it is "Kirbed." If it is offset to the right it is
"Snecked." If it is neither offset to the left or right, it is called
"Straight." Most fly hooks are straight because they ride better in
moving water, with no tendency to roll, as they would if offset either
to right or left.

A hook is not just a hook. It is a specialized instrument, designed
for some specialized angling situation or method of fishing. By
remembering that and selecting your hooks accordingly, you will
make any fishing trip more successful and enjoyable.

CORRECT LEADERS

In fly casting, your ability to develop fish-taking delicacy depends
a great deal on a carefully selected leader more so than on the
proper choice of either fly line or fly. The proper leader is essential
for a long cast. Carefully selected leaders are a must in fishing
deeply sunken wet flies. Even a worm, properly fished, requires
careful leader selection. Leaders, however, are the one essential link
in successful fishing which is most often neglected.

If your fly pattern is right for the water and season, and you are
still not taking fish consistently, give your leader plenty of thought.
It may have a half dozen things wrong with it, with none of them
being casually apparent. A leader may be too short, too heavy, not
tapered properly. The material may not be right for the type of
fishing you are attempting.

Take a too-short leader for mid-season stream conditions water
low, quiet, and clear. You may have carefully matched the hatch
presently over the water, and your fly may be a perfect duplicate
both as to color and size. But unless you have matched these low-
water conditions with a proper leader, you have canceled out an
otherwise acceptable fly pattern.

There is a best length and a best taper for these low-water
conditions. Most commercial leaders start with a butt which is too
light for the length of leader required for best low-water results.
This, apparently, is done in an effort to get a very light, incon-

CORRECT LEADERS 99

spicuous link between line and fly. Such leaders are very difficult
to cast except when there is a wind coming directly from behind the
angler. These commercial leaders, with a butt section calibrating
.015 or smaller, should be avoided.

A butt section of .021 is very much better. This section should be
at least 30 inches long in order to turn over the leader properly on
the cast. The next section should be .020 in diameter and 20 inches
long, followed by these sections: .018, 14 inches long; .016, 8 inches
long; .014, 8 inches long; .012, 8 inches long; .011, 6 inches long; .009,
6 inches long; and a .008 tippet (3X) 27 inches long.

This makes a leader just slightly less than twelve feet in length,
It will cast wonderfully well, except in a stiff breeze. Where excep-
tionally clear, low water must be fished, and the trout are very shy,
many anglers drop down another calibration to a 4X tippet on this
leader. Some anglers will go to even smaller gut tippets, using a 5X
one. But very few rods are responsive enough to keep trout from
breaking out on the strike when such fine gut is used. Actually, only
the English-type wet-fly action is at all practical with such a spider
web for a leader tippet.

A long, well-tapered leader is not only a good clear-water ter-
minal rig, it is also best for small wet flies, nymphs, and dry flies.
Where small flies are used, nothing will kill their action more effec-
tively than a heavy leader. Hence, when using these small creations,
it is imperative that the leader tippet be carefully matched to their
size. It is very doubtful whether any fly smaller than a number 12
can be fished with a IX tippet or larger, if the full fish-taking poten-
tial of the fly and the method is to be realized. That doesn't mean fish
cannot be taken on such a setup, but it does mean that when water
conditions and the hatch indicate a size 12 or smaller fly, careful
consideration must be given to the leader for a complete matching.

Most anglers are familiar with a double-tapered fly line, but few
realize that there are also double-tapered leaders which work beau-
tifully for certain types of flies. This isn't such a startling innovation
as it would seem, however. A double-tapered leader is just an ordi-
nary tapered leader with a heavy hinge section about thirty inches
from the butt. A typical double-tapered leader is made about as
follows: butt section .020 or .021, then a drop to .016, then a heavy

I <X> CORRECT LEADERS

section 14 to 16 inches long, calibrating .019. The taper falls away
from this hinge section progressively, just as it does in the conven-
tional tapered leader, ending in a 2X or 3X tippet. This is a very
good leader to use with the larger flies, such as the Bi- Visible dry
flies or the Fanwing, which offer considerable air resistance in
casting.

A happy thought in leaders is invisibility. If that could be
obtained, many problems of terminal tackle would be solved. Tests
have been conducted to find the effects of leader color on fish, and
grey mist color has been found to be the least disturbing to trout.
The next best color was a bluish green. Fish see the leader against
the skylight, and these two colors proved the least conspicuous
under those conditions in clear water. On lakes and streams where
water is stained marsh brown, darker colored leaders gave best
results.

But even if we had completely invisible leaders, much careful
thought would still have to be given to proper leader size and length.
Unnatural movement of flies and other lures, imparted by improper-
size leaders, would still be there to plague the angler.

I had an example of this one summer, while fishing a wilderness
river. These trout were seldom fished over maybe three or four
times during the season so we were careless about our leaders. The
size of those rainbows was also a factor in our selectionl Those big
sixteen- and eighteen-inch rainbows were plainly visible at the heads
of the pools, in the green-blue water. Occasionally they moved out
of position slightly to investigate anything carried by the current-
following surface drift downstream, then tipping up to touch it in the
dry fly water, spearing a hapless may fly from a scattering hatch.

Dry flies were indicated. Since this was a wilderness river, with
big trout plainly visible, we rigged with heavy leaders. Mine was a
9V foot, tapering to a OX tippet. My choice of fly was a March
Brown on a number 12 hook because a small brown complementing
may fly was over the water. The correctness of this color selection
was further indicated by those trout occasionally tipping up to spear
small bits of brown drift on the surface.

I cast over those trout for a full half hour. They investigated my
fly with a few casual turnovers, breaking water beautifully, but never

CORRECT LEADERS 101

actually touched my offering. Eventually, I tipped my fly on a back-
cast, breaking off the barb. I snipped it off and tossed it on the water.
From behind a sunken boulder a big rainbow came. He smashed that
jauntily cocked fly in a foam-flecked eddy, coming out full length
above the surface.

I immediately tied on another leader, dropping down to 5X
tippet. Maybe you have already guessed what happened. I left a
number 12 March Brown sticking in the lip of a big rainbow, at least
nineteen inches long. I had really gone from one extreme to another.
A 5X gut, with a breaking strength of .9 pound, is not a tippet for
rough water and big trout In quiet water, however, and with a very
soft-action rod, it is sometimes the only way you can take fish.

After breaking out twice with 5X tippets, I tried a 4X. Within
an hour I had managed to take a pair of beautiful rainbows, measur-
ing eighteen and seventeen inches. But the large one, which had
taken my unattached fly, never rose again, a disappointment which
was tempered by the two beauties I had in my creel.

Proper leaders and light tippets are not only indicated for small
flies in low clear water, but are also best when fishing a worm or
small spinner-fly combination. A worm or a spinner-fly requires just
as much delicacy as a dry fly something most anglers are prone to
forget.

One afternoon I met a friend coining downstream with a broad
smile on his face. At first glance it was apparent that here was a
citizen with trout in his creel and at peace with the world. I had
taken only two trout that day and knew they were extremely hard
to entice. So when this angler friend showed me six trout ranging in
size from twelve to fourteen inches, I immediately began to ask him
about fly patterns, method, and such.

"Pattern isn't much," he beamed. "A mighty sparsely dressed fly,
you might say." To emphasize his point he held up a number 12
hpok tipped with a small piece of anglewormnothing more. He had
about a 10-foot leader tapering to a 30-inch, 4X tippet.

"Look, Citizen, this leader, tapering to a 4X tippet this worm
those six trout! Would you mind making the connection?"

"Why surely," he grinned smugly. "Just cast upstream, like you
misguided fly fishermen do when using a nymph. This light tippet

102 CORRECT LEADERS

makes that worm very water-willed. It goes down through the nat-
ural feeding channels where those trout are waiting on these inactive
days. Well, when anything as attractive as a worm is dangled under
their indifferent noses, they strike. So it is just a matter of getting
there with the proper offering and a fine piece of gut. Then let
Nature take its course."

His insisting on fine gut brings up an interesting point on leader
materials nylon and natural gut. Both have many good qualities
to recommend them; both have disadvantages. One advantage of
nylon is that it requires no soaking before use, while natural gut, as
you know, requires a thorough soaking before it can be tied or used.

For wet fly fishing on big water, or for drifting a worm deep, as
my friend with the beautiful creel of trout did, gut is superior to
nylon. It will sink more readily. Another advantage is that for equal
breaking strength it is slightly smaller in diameter than conventional
nylon. There is one type of leader material, however, marketed
under the trade name of Platyl, which is very small in diameter for
its breaking strength. Its calibration per pound is less than natural
gut

In streams where the water is seldom more than wader deep,
nylon serves very well for wet fly fishing. Bass and trout will usually
move out sufficiently in such shallow water to take a fly, even though
it is not deeply fished. The only exception is when they are inactive,
and the fly must be offered directly at their hideouts under the deep-
cut banks, sunken logs, and ledges. Then, natural gut is the best
choice.

Anglers eventually decide to make their own leaders. There are
several reasons for this, the most important of which is that home-
made leaders can be designed with certain local water conditions
in mind. And, of course, there is always plenty of time during long
winter evenings, after the angling seasons are closed, when a fisher-
man enjoys doing something about his projected trips for the coming
season. Making leaders is a natural for such times. And it is compara-
tively simple, once a few leader-making knots are mastered. Almost
any fishing tackle catalog has illustrations of proper knots to use in
tying leaders, so they will not be gone into here. I have only one
suggestion: use ordinary string until you have mastered the knots

Conventional spinning reel. (Charles F. Orvis Co.)

Fly rod spinning reel. (Johnson Co.)

There is a wide variety of sinkers available, each best for some one angling
condition. Note the wrap-around sinker on the leader, partly wrapped to show
method of employment*

A practical field knife with sturdy blades, angler's clip, and hook disgorger.

CORRECT LEADERS 103

most commonly employed. Being larger, the intricacy of the knot is
more readily apparent than it would be if you first attempt it with
the finer nylon or natural gut.

Making your own leaders will give you a very good grasp of the
importance of this part of your terminal tackle, and that alone is
reward enough for many evenings* work.

TERMINAL RIGS
AND SINKERS

When I was a lad out after shiners, I attached my sinker about
a foot above the hook, and that was that. How many fish were lost
because their delicate nibbling went undetected is problematical,
but it was undoubtedly a good share of those attracted to my primi-
tive setup. That heavy sinker, directly on the line between the hook
and the rod tip, canceled out any strike except a most robust yank
by some unsophisticated panfish.

Plenty of thought is required to get just tie right terminal tackle
setup for taking bottom fish. And that thought should start with the
sinkers to be used.

Most sinkers are too heavy. Sinker weight for any type of fishing
should never be more than required to get the bait down on the
bottom. Any additional weight above this requirement kills both the
action of the rod and that of the bait itself. When one is using a fly
rod and worm, it is best to cast upstream, without weight, allowing
the current to carry the worm deep. Where water conditions don't
make this practical, attach a very small split shot.

Many fish are lost each season by anglers who clip their split shot
directly to their fly rod leaders, when using wet flies or worms.
Unless this is carefully done the leader becomes frayed, and even-

104

TERMINAL RIGS AND SINKERS 105

tually the shot will so weaken it that the first heavy fish hooked will
break out at the crucial moment.

A much better method of attaching split shot is to a small drop-
per a few inches long, looped at one end. This loop can be used to
attach the dropper above one of the taper knots by threading the end
of the dropper through the loop and drawing taut. Then the split
shot can be clipped to this short dropper. When you no longer
require split shot to get your lure down on the bottom, it is a simple
matter to remove the dropper.

A wrap-around sinker is another method of giving your fly rod
leader weight. This is simply a small, thin strip of lead which is
wrapped directly around the leader. It is easily attached and as
easily removed after use, and there is no harm done to the leader.
Sometimes, when you find yourself with a too-light fly rod leader,
as when casting into a stiff cross wind, this same bit of lead strip can
be used to make the butt section of your leader heavier. A little
experimenting, moving the weight back and forth on the butt sec-
tion of your leader, will give you just the proper combination. It will
also serve as a reminder to have a few leaders tied with heavy butt
sections, against the time you again fish under similar circumstances.

When an angler is using a bait-casting outfit, the sinker arrange-
ment and attachment are just as important as they are for the fly
rod fisherman. Sinker weight is used to give balance to a bait rod,
making it cast most efficiently. But even here, most anglers tend to
overload their rods with too heavy sinkers. It is never advisable to
use more lead than the least amount you can cast with. If your
casting outfit seems a bit light, you are approaching the ideal weight.
Remember, it isn't distance you are concerned with here, but deli-
cacy of presentation and weight sufficient to get your bait down on
the bottom.

Of equal importance with the weight of the sinker used, is the
method of attaching it to your bait-casting outfit. When fishing for
panfish, it is good practice to have a dropper about fourteen inches
long for the bait. This dropper is attached to a swivel at the end of
the line, and another dropper, eighteen inches long, is attached to
this swivel for the sinker. A terminal rig of this kind gives you a
very delicate feel when anything touches your bait If you lower

106 TERMINAL RIGS AND SINKERS

your bait a bit after you know your sinker is on the bottom, there
is no weight between your rod tip and bait. The most casual nibble
is detected, and the hook is easily set.

A similar terminal rig is excellent when drifting a bait through a
riffle. Here, however, the sinker dropper should not be over six inches
long. The bait dropper should be at least eighteen inches, and for
very clear water it should be twenty-four inches long.

This method of drifting bait has been developed to a fine art on
the steefliead rivers of the Pacific Northwest. The cast is made up-
stream and quartering across. Just sufficient weight is used to get
on the bottom, but not enough to hold against the current. When title
sinker is down on the gravel, the flow of the current holds the bait
about six inches above the bottom. The eighteen- to twenty-four-
inch bait leader is directly downstream and in this manner is carried
through the natural feeding channels to the waiting quarry. The
sinker is felt bumping along on the bottom. Any pause is investigated
with a sharp strike.

Quite often a steelhead angler sets his hook into some underwater
object such as a log or root. But on the tenth time it is a big steelhead
who has had the temerity to pick up that gob of eggs.

Big trout are also susceptible to this terminal rig in heavy water
where flies are not producing. Many fishermen use this method on
small-mouth bass in some of the fabulous Ozark Mountain streams.
But instead of using salmon eggs, they use streamer flies and small
plugs.

Another clever method of attaching a sinker, especially when
angling for bullhead or catfish, is to thread the line through the eye
of the sinker, attach a swivel to the line, then your bait dropper to
this swivel. The swivel prevents the sinker from working down close
to your hook, but once the rig is on the bottom a fish can move the
line through the edge of the sinker without resistance. When the
hook is set, the impulse is felt directly at the bait, without the ham-
pering weight of the sinker.

Another sinker rig I saw an angler use has considerable merit for
swift-water fishing. This angler was fishing a steelhead river by
standing at the head of a riffle and casting directly downstream. He
used a flat sinker sufficiently heavy to get his bait down on the bot-

TERMINAL RIGS AND SINKERS 107

torn. It was attached with a short dropper. Any tension on his line
caused his sinker to plane to the surface, raising his terminal rig off
the bottom. A slacking of the line would send it deep. By adroit
manipulation he touched all the deep, favored spots those huge sea-
run rainbows used. On the retrieve his sinker, planing to the surface,
avoided the cobblestone bottom, and there was a minimum of
hangups.

In rigging either hooks or sinker to a terminal rig, one precaution
should be always kept in mind. Never rig with droppers or leaders
which test as much as your line tests. If you are using a twelve-
pound test casting line, use droppers testing at least three or four
pounds less. Then, if you should happen to snag up, it is the dropper
which breaks when you pull free, saving your valuable line.

Sinkers merit much more study fhar> the average angler gives
them. There are many specialized shapes on the market, each
designed for some specific purpose. A good, well-rounded selection
of sinkers can be obtained very inexpensively, and they are just as
essential as a well-rounded selection of hooks and lures.

EQUIPMENT FOR

FISHING

FLEXIBILITY

I met this angler on a wilderness trail which skirted a wonderful
trout stream in the Sisldyou National Forest. Three days of fishing
had given him a blank, except for a few small trout which he had
carefully returned to the water. I could understand his disappoint-
ment. He had hiked over the forest service trails, well back from the
crowded streams, but those wilderness rivers had not produced.

Trout were there for the taking, toonice three- and four-pound
cutthroats lazily finning against the pull of the current. But rain
and high, clouded water had canceled out all fly fishing during the
three days this angler had been on the streams.

Maybe a small wobbler would have produced at that time, or a
spinner fly combination fished just above the bottom might have
been the very lure for that high, clouded water. I know it produced
for me, after I set up my overnight camp and fished for an hour in
the late evening. I took two nice twelve-inch cutthroats for my
supper before darkness forced me off the river. But by this time that
disappointed fisherman was well back over the trail toward the
Forest Service Station, returning home.

108

EQUIPMENT FOR FISHING FLEXIBILITY 109

Next day, those cutthroats were back on flies. A Light Cahill,
wet, was just the ticket. During a long golden evening there was a
hatch of may flies over the water, and again a Light Cahill, fished
dry, was very productive.

An angler cannot make the weather, but by careful selection he
can make his equipment respond to any weather and water condi-
tions. Go prepared to use a diversity of methods and lures, and you
will find less disappointment. All fish have days when they will
refuse any one type of lure. They have days when they are not
responsive to certain methods of angling, be that method fly fishing,
spin casting, or bait casting. But if your lures and techniques are
spread over a broad enough basis, your chances of having a combi-
nation which will produce fish are immeasurably increased.

Are you a dry fly purist? If you confine yourself strictly to a dry
fly you are missing a lot of fascinating fishing with wet flies. And, it
must be added, you are also missing a lot of heavy trout which,
while they are not greatly attracted to dry flies, will go for a streamer
or nymph. Another extreme in angling, comparable to the dry fly
purist, is the bass fisherman who confines his efforts to a bait-casting
outfit and plugs. That angler should try bass bugging with a fly rod.

The fly rod is a versatile means of fishing, but not if it is confined
to just one type of lure or to flies alone. That day I fished for cut-
throats in the Siskiyou National Forest exemplified fly rod versatility.
I used a spinner fly to take two trout under very adverse water
conditions. I was prepared with spinner fly combinations in a variety
of sizes, and with fly rod wobblers. Streamer flies, dry flies, wet flies,
nymph flies name a weather condition which was likely to occur on
those particular waters, and I had a fishing lure which matched the
occurrence.

A distinction must be drawn between the angler who has a diver-
sity of equipment and the one who comes to the stream loaded with
equipment. Diversity of angling equipment need not mean a heavy
load. After all, there are only a few basic changes you have to make
from flies to deep running lures, such as spinners or wobblers and
from subdued colors to bright ones in your metal lures.

There are many roads to disappointment in angling, however,
which are not directly tied in with the lures you use. The lack of a

110 EQUIPMENT FOR FISHING FLEXIBILITY

small tube of cement can easily spoil a fishing trip. With it you can
mend a broken rod tip or reset a loose ferrule. Either of these two
mishaps, far from a tackle shop, can cancel out all your painstaking
planning unless you go prepared to meet such small emergencies.
A small tube of patching materials for boots and waders is another
good investment in angling pleasure. A snagged wader or boot can
be a very disconcerting proposition in icy water. It only takes min-
utes to patch such a hole if you have a small patching outfit.

In heavily infested snake country, all anglers should carry a snake
bite kit. This has nothing to do with a quart of "Old Fisherman's
Delight." A good snake bite kit is very compact and adds very little
weight. Usually, it consists of a suction cup to place over fang punc-
tures, a small blade to cut the punctures to induce bleeding, and a
tourniquet to slow circulation between the wound and the heart.
Complete instructions come with these snake bite kits, and should
be studied carefully before entering snake-infested country.

Let's take up the matter of duplicate lines. Once, while fishing
steelhead on a wilderness river, with no tackle shop closer than ten
miles over a mountain trail, I saw an angler hook a rampaging steel-
head. It shot down a riffle at express-train speed, taking all the fly
line and most of the backing. Then it came clear of the water in a
heart-stopping jump which wrapped the fly line around an over-
turned cedar tree in mid-channel. That fly line was there to stay.

The shocked angler stood on a spray-drenched rock, mouth open,
hands trembling, considering this dramatic introduction to his first
steelhead. He had all the rest of the day for reflection, too, for there
was no chance to recover his line and there was not another spare
line in the crowd. It was a day, too, when the river was alive with
jumping, sea-seasoned rainbows.

Put it down as an important item that no fly rod is complete with-
out a duplication of the fly line with which it is perfectly fitted. This
duplication is comparatively easy to make. There is no necessity of
going through the process of casting and testing. Simply weigh the
line which fits your rod. Then duplicate this weight in the same type
of line. You will find that even those of the same size designations
vary enough so that you will have to weigh several very carefully to
find an exact duplicate.

EQUIPMENT FOR FISHING FLEXIBILITY III

Spinning lines and bait-casting lines should also be carried in
duplicate. Here you have no problem of matching the rod, but there
is the problem of carrying several sizes of spinning lines to match
different water conditions. Clear water will often indicate the use of
very small, delicate lines for best results. Bait-casting lines, as a
general rule, require less matching. The important thing is to have a
few spares.

Another piece of fishing equipment which I find indispensable is
an angler's clip. This is used to cut leaders, change flies, and punch
cement out of flyhook eyes. It has a hundred different uses, Im sure,
but I especially appreciate its handiness when making up a leader on
a river, or changing tippets. The angler's clip I use has a short thong
to attach it to a fishing jacket, where it is constantly ready for use.
There is presently on die market an angler's knife which you might
prefer to the clip. It has a blade, punch, and small pair of scissors.
And it serves very well for changing flies or working on a leader.

An angler, it is said, never has enough pockets. That saying,
however, was more current before the many good fishing jackets
became available. With the wide selection which a fisherman now
has at his finger tips, he can have pockets to spare. Those combina-
tion game-fishing vests put out by several manufacturers are excel-
lent. The best are short, designed for deep wading. They have a
large pocket across the back in which you can carry your fish. But
I have always found it an excellent idea to use one of those splendid
English-type fish bags for this purpose. All my vest pockets are
devoted to flies, lures, leaders, lines, and other equipment, including
a lunch in the large back pocket. My fish bag, with its several com-
partments, is used to carry fish and additional equipment.

The landing net is carried on a snap, attached to the shoulder
strap. When it is not in use, I find it a simple matter to drop it over
my shoulder, letting it hang down my back out of the way.

Some anglers like a creel, but once they have used the English-
type fish bag I doubt if they would ever want to go back to their
creel. It is bulky and awkward on a stream, while the fish bag is light
and portable. It seems to me that the best fish bags are much to be
preferred, even though the initial coast is greater.

112 EQUIPMENT FOR FISHING FLEXIBILITY

There are two questions which a fisherman must ask himself
about each item of equipment: Does it serve some useful purpose?
Is it the best for that purpose? An affirmative answer to the first
question will keep him from becoming overloaded with equipment
which is seldom used. An affirmative answer to the second question
means high quality, fishing-taking stream equipment with which to
meet the challenge of the ever-changing weather and water condi-
tions on the rivers and lakes he fishes.

WILDERNESS
FISHING

Picture yourself backpacking from the end of the road through
virgin timber country a beautiful fishing trip, with plenty of trout
to test your skill with flies and spinners. But the know-how which
goes into that part of the trip is really subordinate to other require-
ments with which all anglers should become acquainted before
attempting a hiking-fishing vacation.

To fish wilderness country, the angler-hiker must meet several
basic requirements. The first is a good hand gun, and skill in its use.
If you now have no skill in shooting a revolver or pistol, join a
pistol club. The time spent at target practice will give you a famil-
iarity with your weapon, and a degree of accuracy sufficient for your
needs.

A .38 Special revolver, either a Colt or a Smith and Wesson, is a
very good choice. My own personal handgun is a .38 Smith and
Wesson, Military and Police model. I use it for small game, off-
season shooting mostly. But on one particular wilderness trip it felt
very comforting in my hand when I came face-to-face with an old
sow black bear, with her two cubs, on the trail. I waited, gun hi
hand. The old bear stood, clicking her teeth together, while her
cubs scrambled up a bank and disappeared in the hemlocks. After
an interval, she followed them. I resumed my fishing, thankful for

113

114 WILDERNESS FISHING

my effective means of arguing the question had she decided to do
something about my intrusion.

The second basic requirement of wilderness backpacking is a
good bed. It is surprising how many outdoormen, going light, stint
on their bedding. Many angling trips are ruined after the day's
fishing is over, and the tired angler goes to bed. Probably the great-
est offender in this respect is the traditional bough bed, made of
pine, fir, or spruce boughs. These beds are never quite as comfort-
able or warm as the sporting magazines would lead one to believe.
My best solution to the problem of outdoor sleeping in summer
is a light down-filled sleeping bag which weighs not more than 4l4
pounds. Complementing this, and equally efficient and comfortable,
is a war-surplus "jungle hammock/* These two items have served me
on many backpacking trips, and I know of nothing which can take
their place. The two together weigh about nine pounds and roll very
compactly for carrying. The hammock has a waterproof top which
can be spread tent fashion to provide a dry, warm bed, even if there
is a severe rainstorm. The mosquito netting, with which the ham-
mock comes equipped, can be closed when these pests come out at
sundown. Once in the hammock, and with the mosquito netting
zipped up, I am ready for a very comfortable night's sleep. There
is a knack to putting up a hammock between two trees, with just the
proper tension for a good bed. But a little experimenting will soon
teach you the trick.

In snake country, it is a nice feeling to be sleeping two or three
feet off the ground. Some snakes, especially rattlers, are prone to
crawl into the beds of outdoor sleepers who lie on the ground. They
are attracted by the body warmth. One time, while camping on
Rogue River in Oregon, this happened to my partner. There was
no dramatic waiting around for the snake to uncoil and move away,
as so often exemplified in the best snake stories. My partner didn't
have that kind of patience. He threw his blanket over his unwelcome
bedfellow and bounced out of his bed like a rubber ball. Afterwards,
he shook the rattler out of his blankets and killed it.

"Too bad to have to knock him off," he explained. "He is such a
little fellow. If I spared him, he might grow up and bite a tourist."

WILDERNESS FISHING 115

Such an event my old hill-billy partner considered second in attrac-
tiveness only to taking a good steelhead on his ancient fly rod.

An angler who is preparing to backpack to remote wilderness
country should give his provision list careful attention, something
which very few do. Ever notice the average hiker's provision list?
Cans of fruits, cans of beans everything in cans all of which adds
up to about eighty-five per cent water. Figure your diet require-
ments carefully before you start. You will eat better on the trip, and
carry a much lighter pack.

That old camp favorite, beans, is much easier carried dry than
ready cooked in cans. A pound of dry beans will equal several cans
of prepared beans, and is much lighter in the pack. Once you are in
good fishing territory, it is a very simple matter to put on a pot of
dry beans and cook them over your evening campfire. Macaroni is
another very good item when you are backpacking. It is very easily
cooked, too. So are noodles, rice, dehydrated onions, and potatoes.

Here is my list of provisions for two men, for a week's camping:

1. Dehydrated potatoes, two small packages, weight one pound.
These are the equivalent of ten pounds of un-dehydrated potatoes.
We served these as mashed potatoes and as potato patties fried in
bacon grease.

2. One small can of powdered cream, weighing about three
ounces. One can served for the entire trip, providing us with good
rich cream for our coffee. If we had used ordinary condensed milk,
we would have had to carry at least three cans.

3. Plenty of fruit was provided by a pound of dried peaches, a
pound of dried apricots, and two pounds of dried apples. We took
along a pound and a half of sugar, to be used on our fruit.

We planned on having trout as an item of diet at least once a day,
so our supply of bacon was amply large three pounds. The grease
from the bacon was sufficient for frying pancakes, trout, and potato
patties.

We carried three pounds of pancake flour, and two pounds of
ready-mix biscuit flour. A half pound of instant coffee and a half
pound of tea was also included.

Our cooking equipment was of the simplest: two army mess kits,
two quart pots, and the usual complement of spoons and forks. The

116 WILDERNESS FISHING

bottoms of the mess kits served as frying pans, and for stewing fruit;
the tops of the kits were our plates. Each man carried his individual
cup. And right here I would like to remark that those metal cups
foisted on outdoorsmen by sporting goods salesmen should be
avoided. They stay hot so long it is practically impossible to enjoy
a steaming cup of coffee without burning your lips, I use a fairly
heavy crockery cup, such as you often find in Northern resorts where
they want coffee to remain hot during a meal.

With our provisions, hammocks, and sleeping bags, our packs
weighed thirty-five pounds eacha weight which any normal out-
doorsman can carry all day without undue fatigue. In addition to
this weight, we carried our fly rods. Mine was a 4V-ounce, 8-foot
Winston, with an action fast enough for dry fly fishing, but still hav-
ing many of the fine characteristics of a wet fly and nymphing rod.

A typical meal for evening on this trip was fried trout, pan bis-
cuits, mashed potatoes, fruit, coffee or tea. Breakfast usually con-
sisted of bacon, pancakes, and coffee. Sometimes we would have fried
trout. Midday was usually spent on the trail or river, with a bacon
sandwich and a pot of tea to sustain us. Our best and most elaborate
meal came at night.

At the end of the trip we found nothing in the way of equipment
or provisions which we wanted to change. While our requirements
were kept to a bare minimum, those light packs enabled us to get
into country which is seldom fished a very attractive feature in
these days of overcrowded waters.

PLUGGING
FOR BASS

Our boat drifted a scanty forty feet from the fringing lily pads
along the shore. An occasional touch with the oars kept it moving
slowly. We watched the lake shoreline for the first shad flies to appear.
But anyone looking at our fishing outfit would have questioned this
waiting for shad flies with only casting rods and bass plugs! My
partner, experienced trout fisherman that he is, talked longingly of
his fly rod and flies. "Now if a fellow had a fly rod, this hatch you
have been predicting for the evening would have possibilities.** He
looked at the small, green-scaled plug he had tied to his bait casting
line. "But this isn't going to look like a shad fly to those large-mouth
bass."

That, of course, was obvious. But past fishing over this water,
when shad flies were on the make, had always produced good results
with a small minnow-type plug. It took larger bass than flies fished
over this same water when a hatch was in progress. Shad flies attract
many small fish to the shoreline when a hatch is on. Large bass move
in for the feasting not so much on the shad flies, but on those
smaller fish.

The warm evening wore on, and the predicted hatch occurred on
schedule. It was an imago hatch, and I knew then that our plugs
were right beyond any question of doubt. The imago hatch is not as

117

118 PLUGGING FOR BASS

attractive as the sub-imago. The return of the spinners to deposit
eggs, although it attracts plenty of small fish, is not as interesting to
large fish. It centers all feeding activity on the surface, however, and
is a thrilling angling experience on many bass lakes.

The sky was turning gold when we began casting. The shad flies
hovered over the lily pads in clouds. They came down to the water,
touched it, and rose made miniature disturbances on the placid
lake surface.

A V-shaped wave outlined the movement of large bass as they
arrowed up out of the depth and chased the smaller fish. But in the
flurry of their kill they never came fully out of the water, as they
often do when surface feeding. They were definitely working on the
minnows, perch, and small bass.

My partner dropped his small, minnow-scaled plug about three
feet short of the shoreside tangle. He let it lie for a moment, then
started a slow retrieve which brought it boatward just under the
surface. It traveled eight feet or so, then the lake exploded around
it. The bass began telling my fly-fishing friend that there are other,
and just as sporting methods, of taking fish. It tail-walked on the
brown water. It came clear of the surface in a clean jump. It made a
bass-plugging convert of him at once. Not that the episode makes
him think less of his fly rod and flies, but now he understands some
of the ardent devotion bass plugging has for an army of anglers.

Sure, I know large-mouth bass are not supposed to jump, and
they are not supposed to battle with the abandon of a rainbow trout.
But wait until you have one on a light casting outfit.

We had wonderful fishing that evening. But this is only one of the
many types of angling which bass afford: still fishing, trolling, and
using flies. Plugging for bass, however, is the American way gener-
ally used to take these sporting fish.

Bass plugs can be divided into two basic types: those designed
to be fished deep, and those made to be fished near or on the sur-
face. In plugging for bass, you have the problem of matching just
as if you were using a fly rod and flies. The only difference is that
now you are matching the smaller fish attracted to the feeding areas
of bass. This is doubly true when there is a hatch in progress.

This bass fell for a plug. (Pete Czura)

Bass lures for a medium-weight spinning rod.

Bass like these would satisfy any angler's heart. (Tennessee Conservation
Department)

Summer steelhead fishing on Oregon's North Umpqua River. (Oregon State
Highway Department)

Steelhead fishing with a dry fly requires long casts. (Oregon Sfare Highway
Department)

PLUGGING FOR BASS 119

When there is no hatch apparent you must match the logical
food source, and the stomach contents of bass can tell an angler a
lot about their food preferences. The first consideration in such
examinations is the color. Match the color of the contents with the
proper colored plug. The second consideration is size. Match that.
Then comes the over-all consideration of food species. Remember,
there are any number of minnows, crayfish, and such for this match-
ing. After all these details are attended to, you still must match the
feeding depth or place. At what water level did the feeding occur?
Deep? Medium depth? Surface?

When this detailed matching is impossible at the start of your
fishing, you must arrive at the answers by considering your past
experience, the season, and the type of water you plan to fish. Deep
running lures are naturally based on small fish life. But these smaller
fish minnows, perch, crappie, and small bass in the fingerling stage
are not deep-water fish. When you cast to a fairly deep piece of
water, bring your lure in toward the shallows. That is the natural
direction a minnow would take to escape the menace of those deeper
pools, so match the natural reaction of the smaller fish life. It stirs
up the predatory instincts of your quarry, too.

Bass phigs are almost as numerous and as varied as fly patterns.
Some of these plugs, in the more common scaled yellow and green
finishes, are successful in almost all bass waters. Others, which have
their inspiration from some certain lake or river, are very regional in
their effectiveness.

I have one such bass lure which I swear by for one lake I fish.
It resembles a crayfish in action and color. It is backrunning, with
the line attached to the tail end, and moves in the manner of a cray-
fish. When I work it in water about ten to twelve feet deep, just
beyond the lily pads, it is always good for a bass or two. Another
type of bass lure with which I have had good success is a floating
plug, adjusted to depth by the speed of the retrieve. Move it fast and
it goes deep. Move it slowly and it works just under the surface.

A very effective method of fishing lures of this type, especially
when one is going deep for those sleeper bass, is to work it fast
enough to send it deep immediately after the cast. Then, when it
has reached maximum depth, let it come surfaceward by slacking

120 PLUGGING FOR BASS

off a bit on the line. For some reason this action is very attractive to
bass. They will follow it up from the depth, then strike just as it
comes to the surface.

The trend in bass plugs is toward smaller, more easily handled
plugs. It is a far cry from those days when a bass lure was a heavy
eight- or nine-inch affair, almost as well covered with hooks as a
porcupine is with quills. Now, the most effective plugs are those in
the 1 A- to Bounce weight range, These cast like a dream with a
light bait casting or spinning outfit. This trend toward smaller bass
plugs has its inspiration from two sources. Bass pluggers find that
large plugs are no longer productive in heavily fished waters. And
in matching the smaller fishlife, smallness in plugs is a practical
necessity.

In rigging for bass plugging, you can profitably start with the
terminal tackle. Those large leaders, almost strong enough to stake
out a raccoon trap, are distinctly out of place. They simply cancel
out the delicacy which smaller lures make possible, A good rule in
leader setup for bass plugging is to use a leader no heavier than is
required to land a bass once he is hooked say a 3- or 4-pound test.
It should be at least three feet long. For accuracy and delicacy are
basic requirements of bass plugging, as much as they are in any
other type of angling.

BASS LAKES

AND

FLY ROD FISHING

Go out on one small lake I know, where black bass is the domi-
nant fish, and ten chances to one you will see most anglers plugging
for bass, regardless of weather, hatches, flights, or season. Plugging
for bass is a thrilling method of fishing, and often very productive.
But there are times when the best, most productive angling comes
from using a fly rod, bass bugs, orthodox wet or dry flies, nymph
patterns, streamers, and spinner-fly combinations. It takes plenty of
finesse to fish bass with flies and bugs. It takes an intimate knowledge
of bass water. But it has a thrilling pay off.

Consider the average bass lake in reference to the food cycles.
First, it should be remembered that there is no difference in making
a complete matching on lake water than on a river. You must give
the same careful consideration to the entire segment of insect and
other activity for a full twenty-four hours when fishing a bass lake.
Second, the depth of water where hatches occur is conditioned by
seasonal weather changes, becoming progressively deeper as the
season advances, down to the limits of effective fly fishing twelve to
fifteen feet in depth.

121

122 BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING

One April, early in the day, after about four days of warm sun-
shine behind me, I fished this previously mentioned small lake with
flies. It is so typical of the over-all problem of taking bass with a
fly rod that the episode merits telling. Not a riffle touched the water
at the dawn hour when I arrived on the lake. I bailed out my bat-
tered old boat rented for the day, and I gently shoved it out through
the lily pads. Then I sat, watching for some feeding activity but
nothing happened. The mirror-like surface of lake was broken only
by the small waves of my own activity. But above the water a very
occasional caddis fly hovered, so very few I dismissed them without
too much thought; no basis for a matching here. They were the
result of a previous flight, but their numbers didn't suggest any great
activity, nor any great memory for matching. But this was all to the
good in one way. Their very presence indicated an interval before
a feeding cycle. All that was needed to touch it off would be warmth.

Warmth would be first felt in the shallows. The season indicated
may flies, too. Why shouldn't I touch of this cycle now, before the
Sunshine of this April day works its magic along the margin of the
lake?

You have to have your hand on the pulse of the season to do this.
You must know, beyond the least angling doubt, the types of flies
these warm seasonal days touch to life. In short, you must touch on
every attractive facet of lake activity, either present or anticipated,
to be successful with your fly fishing. This is what my late angling
friend, Eugene Burns, called creative fishing, an imaginative ap-
proach to the problem of taking any kind of fish.

In this particular water I could depend on small hatches of may
flies from early March on not clouds of may flies, like the late sea-
son hatches, but a scattering hatch in the more sheltered, shallow
waters of the coves and inlets. In addition, I could expect to see
those large dragon flies over the water later in the day, lighting on
the stems of swamp grass, water-lily pads, hovering directly over the
surface with their broad shadows darkening the red-stained swamp
water of this small lake. Best of all, though, would be the smalt
myriad, underwater life now stirring to greater activity after a long
winter which they spent comparatively dormant.

BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING 123

Indeed, as my waterlogged boat drifted close to the margin of
the willows and swamp grass, I could see caddis fly larvae moving
slowly over the bottom in the shallow water. They literally covered
the more open spots which would receive sunshine later in the day.
But by the same token, I could see no sign of bass interest in these.
Remembering excellent catches of bass taken from this lake later in
the season with a caddis fly pattern, I now dismissed them, along
with their flying counterparts, from any thought of matching.

I really made two bets with myself. First, at this early morning
hour I had to fish a nymph. Second, as soon as the water received the
sun, I would have to change pattern and method of fishing. My first
selection was a large may fly nymph, size 6. Perhaps large isn't the
right word, but from the standpoint of the small naturals I intended
to match, size 6 was large.

Even at the expense of repetition, all this was nothing more than
anticipating a hatch, of creating the beginning of a hatch, imitating
the activity which always precedes a hatch, regardless of what par-
ticular type you may find and use as a basis for your nymphing.

I pushed my boat away from its lodgment in the shallows and
moved it out about forty feet from a small dark cover of water which
showed a shadowed depth of about four or five feet. I made my first
cast just to the outer edge of this, and matched my fly drift down
until it entirely disappeared in the depths.

This would seem the simplest of all fly fishing casts to make, but
actually it takes plenty of finesse to be effective. Everything must be
right. The leader must be of good tapered gut to sink readily with a
tippet of IX. A leader length of nine to twelve feet is indicated,
depending on the water depth. You must have a rod in hand which
is responsive to the least whim of movement. A floating fly line is
important, too.

All this is directed toward just one thing a properly worked
nymph fly. That is the basic thing on which all your bass fishing
with a nymph is predicated. I doubt if any angler, regardless of how
expert he may be with a fly rod, can impart the proper, natural
pre-hatch movement to a may fly nymph unless he has troubled him-
self to watch the naturals in shallow water before and during a
hatch. That seems like time wasted which could be used in the more

124 BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING

serious business of fishing. But actually, the putting in of a fly should
be a culmination of this careful study. It makes the final ritual pay
off in bass taken from heavily fished waters, time after time.

I let my fly drift down, dead-stick, until it had time to reach the
bottom, while I thoughtfully cursed the perversity of my water-
logged boat which, for no good reason I could discover, kept turning
stern out toward the center of the lake. But by stripping a bit of
extra line I compensated for its waywardness working out my cast.
I worked my rod tip, bringing my fly surf aceward a foot or two, let-
ting it drift downward again, erratically, restlessly.

That is the normal movement of a may fly nymph when the urge
to hatch is upon it. It moves surf aceward, thinks better of it, and
drops down toward the security of the bottom. It repeats this rou-
tine over and over, until one time the impulse to surface and break
its wing case cannot be denied.

I think my fly may have touched bottom for the third time when
the rod became vibrantly alive with the strike of a good bass. When
I got him to the side of the boat and released him, I guessed his
weight at a pound and a half. Nothing large, but he was willing and
able.

This same nymphing procedure netted me three more bass before
the first rays of the sun touched off the hatch of may flies to the
point where it was more profitable to put a surface fly to work.
I used a cork-bodied may fly pattern now. When tied on a 3X long,
straight-eyed number 6 hook, there was no problem of floating it,
even after two or three bass were taken with it.

There is something special about taking bass on dry flies, some-
thing a bit beyond that achieved with the same type flies when trout
are working a hatch. First, on lakes, you have no current to help you
with your presentation, no movement of the fly beyond that achieved
by a cautious working of the rod tip. And this is an art in itself.

Matching a sub-imago hatch, as I did here, you have to achieve
the wing case breaking ritual by working your rod tip. The fly, once
prensented, lies motionless on the surface. Then, after an interval
when the small disturbance of its striking the surface has subsided,
work the fly. You show the actual breaking out of the wing cases,
just as it occurs before the insect is air-borne. This would seem a

BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING 125

simple thing, but it is very important If it is not done you will take
some bass, of course. If it is done, you nip into a reserve of bass
grown cautious beyond the taking with ordinary methods.

This ritual of showing the breaking out of the nymph has a time
element built in which must be touched upon as a facet of matching.
You must not only show the intensity of the struggle, but its duration
as well. Make this complete matching, which must be based on close
observation of naturals going through the same ritual, and even the
most sophisticated bass are finagled, time after time. Bass water
overfished by other and more careless methods become productive
again.

This morning, fishing with surface flies, I took four more bass
before quitting for the day. I hadn't exhausted the potential of the
fly rod and flies, however, not by a long cast. There are several more
fly rod methods and lures which are very effective.

Bass bugging is an excellent change of pace, especially on lakes
and ponds where a large quota of plug casters have taken and
released bass over the season. Eventually (or one might say usually),
on all heavily fished waters, you must come up with something
different to touch off these educated bass. That something different
can be a carefully worked bass bug.

Bass bugging requires a slightly slower actioned fly rod than that
usually employed for nymphing and surface flies. THis fly rod action
is important from both the standpoint of control and delicacy of
presentation. When the average angler thinks of delicacy in connec-
tion with fly rod fishing, he usually thinks of size 12 dry flies, up-
stream work on a glass-like trout water. But it is just as essential in
bass bugging. A bass bugthe natural which is the inspiration for
the artificialis bumbling. He may be a small frog, a great brown
moth, a dragon fly anything which bulks large on the water. But
with all this you have the very delicate problem of matching his
actions, of careful presentation. This ties in directly with an intimate
knowledge of bass habits and ability to read water.

First, consider the actual location of bass not on an active feeding
spree. Here, as in trout fishing, or any other type of fishing for that
matter, your most productive water has two important facets
security first, passive feeding second. In short, this bass is not ac-

126 BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING

tively moving over his feeding station, but he is in position to keep
an eye on any dividend in the way of a luckless frog, dragon fly,
moth, or what have you, which touches the water.

Find such a setup in a lake, and you may depend on it a worth-
while bass is on station there. You may not entice him with ordinary
methods, but he is there and responsive to a bass bug presented
with the proper delicacy and timing.

Delicacy means putting that bug over the feeding station without
a trace of line touching water which might hold your quarry. From
your very first cast, every possibility of the holding water must be
working so each segment is ticked off by the touch of your bug
before it is used as line water.

Slow, slower yet. That is the essence of your timing. There is
nothing slam-bang about a natural insect, either terrestrial or
aquatic. There should be nothing slam-bang about your timing.
Present your bug. Let it rest on the water. Work it very gently at
first; rest it; work it violently. This is advertising. You are saying in
effect: a big bumbling moth dropped here. He is alive, struggling,
may become air-borne again, unless something is done about it.

With some bass bugs your presentation should say in effect:
something frightened a small frog from that lily pad, stump, or log.
He dropped right before you, Mr. Bass. He is now wiggling around,
looking the situation over. Now he is swimming away from you.

That is bass bugging in a nutshell. You must achieve a total
matching, touching on the memory of natural occurrences which
have occupied the attention of the bass before. Unless you make
each cast touch on every facet of matching, you are underestimating
bass, fishing down to them as it were, something many trout fishing
anglers do when they turn to a bass lake with a fly rod.

What bass bugs are best? That is a great deal like asking which
fly rod is best, which line type. It depends on the water. Actually,
there are perhaps three or four hundred different bass bug patterns.
But you can get along nicely with about a dozen different patterns
and types. The bug which dunks and pops when the rod tip is
worked is often a nice attractor. Those explosive pops, gurgles,
wiggles, and dives are often just the thing to touch off indifferent

BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING 127

bass who have examined all the local anglers' offerings with a
skeptical eye.

My best luck with this type has been with those having a small
frog for their inspiration. Two divided tufts of deer hair make a
very creditable imitation of a frog swimming when the rod is
worked. This lure when dropped well up against a stump, sunken
log, lily pad, or other natural hideout, can touch off bass under the
most adverse conditions. As for colors, I like the greens, blacks, and
such. This is perhaps conditioned by the swamp-stained waters I
fish. In clear lakes, the yellows, reds, and whites often work better
for me.

Another type bass bug which has given consistent results, and is
much easier to cast, is the clipped-deer hair type, imitating nothing
specifically, but touching on several facets of larger insect life, such
as moths, crane flies, large may flies, caddis flies, and so on. One
pattern, a Burlap, examined in another chapter as a trout fly, is
among the best of these for bass bugging. It can be used as an out
and out nymph. It can be dressed and floated with good results.

Have your fly tier make up some large, number 6 or number 4 size
of those Irresistible Patterns with their full-bodied, clipped-deer hair
and you are in the money for practically all bass bugging. These flies,
in the following patterns, cover about all bass angling situations:
Rat Face (a grizzly); Adams (brown and gray); Black Iris (black,
white wings); Ginger (ginger brown, white wings). But these flies
require the touch of a master tier. Sloppily tied, they are worse than
useless. The best of these patterns I have used have been those from
the hand of Buz Buszek, of Visalia, California.

These flies are very consistent takers in early morning or late
evening, when the exigencies of bass fishing call for a surface lure,
or near surface lure. They may be fished just under the surface with
excellent results, worked in the surface film like a hapless insect
caught below the surface of the water and struggling toward the top.

Almost any of the wet flies, conventional wets used for trout, will
produce on occasion when your quarry is bass. But in lake fishing,
different colored patterns (usually on the somber side) more nearly
match the water. The conventional wet or dry pattern should be not
smaller than a size 6 for the most part, though there is no hard and

128 BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING

fast rule to this. One day, fishing a lake with a stiff wind blowing,
I played out about thirty feet of line, then let the wind dap my fly
on the surface. I succeeded in taking four bass, too. The fly used was
a small number 10 Bucktail Caddis.

Quite often, when a fly alone fails to give any response, a small
spinner attached to any of the streamer fly patterns of subdued
color is an excellent inspiration. There are several variations of
spinners which can make seemingly barren water come to life.

The usual attraction of a spinner is action and flash. A bright-
bladed spinner gives this two-way combination, and should not be
overlooked. But there are qualifications to this, too. When the flashy
orthodox spinner produces no response, ten chances to one you are
not realizing a complete matching. A spinner, such as you use with
a fly rod, is small. Its action as well as flash is a very likely approxi-
mation of a minnow. But in some waters, at certain seasons, this is
not entirely true. You have something less than a complete matching.

Take this same spinner, no larger than your small fingernail,
color it a jet black, attach a streamer pattern, such as the Black Dace,
tied on a long-shanked straight-eyed hook, size 6 or 4. Now what
have you got? Nothing more or less than a very animated water
beetle followed by a small minnow.

Drop this near those previously mentioned hideout-feeding sta-
tions, and the very audacity of this seeming combination of beetle
and minnow is enough to trigger a bass into action. Small fry keep
away from this type water, devoting their talents to the shallows,
and the protection of weed beds. But when you make a cast and
pkce two such tempting morsels within reach of a bass (a small
minnow and a waterbug) that bass will respond.

There are endless combinations which can be attained with
colored spinners and streamer flies. Want more action to that nymph
surfacing to break its wing cases? Attach a very small spinner,
colored with the complementing hue of the nymph you are imitat-
ing, usually gray, tan, black, green. I get excellent results with a
spinner-fly combination imitating a caddis fly returning to a lake to
deposit eggs a gray colored spinner, a Caddis Bucktail fly tied on a
straight eyed hook. Use this close in around the weed beds, where
the ritual of egg depositing usually occurs.

BASS LAKES AND FLY ROD FISHING 129

There is yet another place where these small spinners ably com-
plement your fly. That is in later summer bass fishing of lakes, where
you work at a water depth of ten to twelve feet. Here you can get
your fly well down toward the bottom with a spinner, much better
than if you fished the fly alone. It can be worked a foot to five feet
above the bottom, and made to perform erratically and attractively,
when most anglers solemnly assure you that this lake is fished out,
and that the few remaining bass, if any, will be dormant until the
first cooling rain of autumn touches them to life.

Streamers alone are excellent flies to match a hatch, by-passing
the aquatic insects over the water and concentrating on the min-
nows attracted by the occurrence. I have often had excellent luck
using streamers, such as the Black Dace, Silver Darter, or Black
Marabou. But any pattern with which you have taken large trout is
a potential bass pattern. Not too much distinction can be made
between large trout and large bass so far as feeding habits are con-
cerned. Examine the stomach contents and you find many points of
feeding similarity. What is attractive to one is attractive to the
other. Both have very sizeable cavities to fill, and the most filling of
all provender is a minnow, the basis of all streamer patterns.

Fly-rodding bass is a beautiful occupation, and rewarding in
heavily fished waters. But it takes plenty of finesse and foreknowl-
edge to select and present your offering to make a matching which
touches on att facets. Achieve that on each cast and results will
speak for themselves.

STEELHEAD
TO A DRY FLY

The old saw about going deep for big fish doesn't apply when it
comes to summer steelhead. They are taken on dry flies by West
Coast anglers on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers in California, the
Rogue, North Umpqua and Deschutes Rivers in Oregon, the Stilla-
guamish and Snoqualmie in Washington.

Taking steelhead on dry flies is not an easy method of fishing,
but it is often productive when other methods fail. Then, too, just
one steelhead to a dry fly is compensation enough for many a lean
hour of angling. There is no experience quite like it.

First and most important in dry fly fishing for steel head is to
know what constitutes dry fly water. The difference between good
dry fly steelhead water and wet fly water is not too apparent, but
that the difference does exist is easily proven by careful angling and
observation.

Indian Writing Rock Riffle on Oregon's Rogue River covers a
good quarter mile of steelhead holding water. There are places
where the current is slowed to a whisper, flowing deep between
granite escarpments. There are places where the current surfaces
and fans out across a cobblestone bottom just deep enough for the
large boulders to appear as shadowed spots on the bottom. In other

130

STEELHEAD TO A DRY FLY 131

places, granite dikes lift and turn the current downward, bubbling
and smoking like a witch's kettle.

Each of these places indicates a certain type of steelhead fly
fishing. On some nothing but a deeply sunken wet fly is effective.
On other parts of this riffle a wet fly will be taken within the first
two feet of surface water, if it is taken at all. Then there are very
broad sections in which tie best fly, day in and day out, is a dry,
very delicately and carefully presented.

To get this in proportion, an angler must know something of the
qualities of water. Reduced to its simplest elements, the flowage is
this: slow water on the surface and at the edges; fastest water one-
third down from the surface and about an equal distance from the
main current; slowest water of all, near the bottom.

Steelhead hold to the slow, more comfortable water, both in their
traveling and while resting. Normally, in many pools that means the
bottom and edges of the main current. But it is the exceptions which
an angler must consider if he is to finagle a steelhead with a sur-
face fly.

On Indian Writing Rock Riffle, there are as many exceptions to
this flowage as there are complementary sections. Where the water
turns down after tumbling over a dike, the fast current sweeps the
bottom. Bits of drift and foam are trapped in small backwaters on
the surface. Often you will see such places disturbed on the surface
by the broad tail of a finning steelhead, if they are on the move.
If they are holding, as they often do during constant water stages,
they will quite often be seen as vague shadow shapes near the sur-
face in these favored places, within reach of a steelhead dry fly.

Coming to Indian Writing Rock Riffle, along in the fore part of
September, it is no hard task to get at least three or four smashing
rises to dry flies during an evening s fishing. My first cast is to a rock
holding a sturdy shoulder against the current, about fifty feet out
from a wadeable section. Above this rock the current breaks over a
sunken ledge, just deep enough to give it a shawl of white lace all
the way across the green slick. The current is plunged deep, the
surface is slowed, dancing backwater.

This particular rock has harbored a steelhead for my dry fly on
six consecutive occasions. One red letter day I managed to take two

132 STEELHEAD TO A DRY FLY

beautiful four-and-a-half-pounders here, while the exponents of
deeply sunken wet flies in this same water finished the evening
fishless.

Some eighty feet below this rock, the water fans out in a broad
shallow run. It comes tumbling up from the bottom, broken and
stilled in innumerable backwaters around huge granite boulders.
Each of these boulders must be prospected in detail with a dry fly,
for they are the most likely places for steelhead to be lying out of
the onrushing current.

When I have a rise at the first rock just below the dike, my fly is
always solidly taken, the steelhead often coming all the way out of
the water in a flashing, heart-stopping leap. In the more shallow
places around those rocks at the tail of the pool, there is none of
this flashing smashing down on the fly. Rather, there is a careful
rise, a turning which will show the full length of the silvered fish
in the shadowed water, a sucking in of the fly with very little sur-
face disturbance.

This difference in the take has to do with the nature of the water.
The lie at the rock is deeper. A tricky cross-current prevents me
from keeping my surface fly on the quiet water for any length of
time before being pulled out of place by the belly of my line. It must
be picked up frequently and recast. A steelhead at the lie either
must take at once, or see the fly disappear. There is no time for
waiting it out like there is at the tail of the pool.

If you want to get an argument started among ichthyologists, ask
about the extent of fresh water feeding by steelhead. Not too many
studies have been made on feeding habits of steelhead in fresh
water. Most of these studies have been made by some avid steelhead
angler.

Steelhead do feed in fresh waterat times and on certain rivers.
A generalization is that the farther south the West Coast stream, and
the earlier the runs enter, the more consistent is the fresh water
feeding. Steelhead entering in late autumn or early winter feed very
little after coming into their natal streams, though they still come
fairly well to a dry fly when river stages are low and the water clear.
One October evening, at the confluence of the Illinois and Rogue
Rivers near Agness, six steelhead anglers were working the riffle and

STEELHEAD TO A DRY FLY 133

deep run just below the Forest Service Bridge. Time after time
steelhead would surface, smack the water with a broad tail, then
turn away. But not a touch to those deeply sunken flies we were
fishing. Everyone says that steelhead only go for well sunken wet
flies, and that was what we were giving them. So none of us can-
vassed the possibility of those lusty battlers feeding on that hatch
of midges over the water. We called it the perversity of steelhead
and let it go at that,

I was camped on the beach. At dusk I decided to put on a dry
and work up along the lee of the riffle to pick up a couple of lesser
trout for my supper. I selected a size 14 Blue Upright, worked out
a bit of line, and then for no good reason sent it sizzling out across
the broad reaches of that deep run where the steelhead constantly
surfaced. It drifted down the surface, a full sixty-five feet away.

The explosion was something to marvel at! A steelhead took with
a wrist snapping yank my introduction to dry fly steelhead fishing.

I landed that steelhead, a five-pounder. Then, while other anglers
looked over my shoulder, I cut it open and carefully examined the
stomach contents. Each identifiable item was placed on a flat rock:
stone fly nymphs, two yellow-jackets, a caddis fly, a may fly, traces
of two unidentified winged insects, and of course midges.

Next evening six anglers were hip-pocket deep in the flowage.
There was another midge hatch over the water, and each angler was
fishing a small Blue Upright. Four limits of steelhead were taken,
while two managed to land one steelhead each. I was one of the low
rods that evening, taking a six-pounder.

Over the evening coffee around my campfire, we examined stom-
ach contents of our catch. All had been surface feeding.

On Trinity River in California, Dr. Mudd of Merced has had
wonderful success dry-fly steelheading. Being of an inquiring turn
of mind, he took stomach samples of all his catches. These samples
make interesting reading for any angler planning on using dry flies
or even wet flies for that matter. For they indicate, among many
other things, that perhaps steelhead anglers have become too occu-
pied with those gaudy creations most fly tiers feel they must turn out
for steelhead. Certainly in the light of my own experience, there is
plenty of room for re-evaluation.

134 STEELHEAD TO A DRY FLY

Basically, the colors found in these samplings have been brown,
black, grey, and ginger. Specifically, the items found have been:
most abundant organism, may fly nymphs (Ephemeroptera); second
most abundant, stone fly nymphs (Plecoptera); caddis larvae (Hy-
dropthilidae) one 10 mm. long; one unidentifiable terrestrial fly;
portion (head and sucking beak) of one Hemiptera; two small black
bits of driftwood. The identifiable adult insects were stone flies, a
bumblebee, and two hornets.

Obviously one could make a case for nymphing steelhead from
these samplings. And a very effective method it is, too. But found
in the diet of any fish nymphs also indicate a period of dry fly fishing
coming up. For nymph activity is only a prelude to surface feeding.
Always, whether the quarry be ordinary trout or lordly steelhead,
especially after mid-season, there is going to be a hatch for you to
fish over.

One August day, while fishing Oregon's Sixes River for sea-run
cutthroats, I took two beautiful four-pound cutthroat at the break
of a tidal pool, using a conventional wet fly. One appeared excep-
tionally plump, so I opened it up. It was gorged on may fly nymphs.
It was well along toward evening, so I immediately put on a number
14 Blue Upright to match an expected hatch of small blue may flies.

First strike came to my dry on a long cast directly downstream
toward some overhanging willows. Instead of the expected sea-run
cutthroat, a beautiful four-pound steelhead took to the air.

I landed this one and another weighing three pounds. All this on
a river which isn't supposed to have any summer steelhead. Both of
these steelhead had been feeding heavily on nymphs. Shortly after
I took them, the expected hatch of small blue may flies appeared
over the water.

Within a week of this episode, I got a repeat performance on
Elk River a few miles south of Sixes. Again it was a Blue Upright
that turned the trick; and again it was in a stream reputably barren
of steelhead in August.

Dry flies for steelhead are not greatly different from those you
would use for wily brown trout, or resident rainbow, nor is there any
esoteric dry fly technique. The careful dry fly angler fresh from the

STEELHEAD TO A DRY FLY 135

heavily fished Eastern streams will have little trouble with steelhead.
He will have to handle a longer line, and that is about all.

Best patterns are those based on the may flies: March Brown,
size 8 to 12, with the smaller sizes taking the most steelhead; Blue
Upright, of course, size 12 to 16; Adams, size 10-12. For very late
evening, when it is almost impossible to see your fly, a Royal
Coachman is a good bet, size 8. Light Cahill, size 12 and 14, and
Mesquito, size 16, are also good. When there is a flight of ants over
the water the fly is a Pink Lady, size 10.

One local pattern has been consistently successful for me: a deer
hair fly, tied by John Kolzer of Blue River, Oregon. It was originally
developed for those McKenzie River redsides, but it is equally suc-
cessful on coast streams I fish. The wings are tied semi-spent, and
the fly rides low in the water, though it floats nicely. The dominant
color is brown, though there is just enough yellow Gantron in the
body to give it a touch of brightness. But to prevent any gaudiness
in the make-up, the body is lightly palmered.

One rule for all steelhead fly fishing applies especially to dry
flies. Fish from sun off to sun on the water. That is the most produc-
tive period.

As I have said, you must reach out there fifty or sixty feet with
your dry on many West Coast streams. To repeat that dry fly must
be dropped in dry fly water. In addition it must either complement
the hatch in progress or anticipate a hatch. Meet those few simple
requirements on any good West Coast steelhead stream when the
runs are on the make, and you are in for dry fly fishing out of this
world.

WINTER
STEELHEAD

The first Chinook storm of early winter growling across coastal
Washington, Oregon, and northern California does things to the
fishing nice things, as any winter steelhead angler will tell you.
There is an esoteric stirring out along the continental shelf of the
Pacific. Winter steelhead turn homeward toward their natal streams.
This is the end of summer and autumn steelheading. Here, for all
practical angling purposes, is an entirely different fish. Here, too, is
entirely different angling, as well as a different fisherman.

An angler may have put his flies over the summer runs in Califor-
nia's Trinity and Klamath, Oregon's Rogue River and Umpque, the
Deschutes, Washington's Kalama, Washougal, Wind, and Stilla-
guamish Rivers, and I am sure he will have loved every minute of
this hest of all fly fishing. But now, with the water discolored and
feverish with the first storms keening across the West coast, the win-
ter steelheader takes to the rivers. He uses casting rods and spinning
rods especially crafted for this rugged winter fishing. And his quarry,
a winter-run steelhead, weighing in at around five to as much as
twenty-five pounds poolside, thinks nothing of taking that tackle
apart in detail.

He isn't subtle or sophisticated, this winter steelhead. He is
seldom shy like a summer steelhead lying in Indian Writing Rock

136

WINTER STEELHEAD 137

pool on the Rogue, Middle Pool of the Klamath, or the Glory Hole
of the North Umpqua, as hard to fool as an educated hrown trout.
No, your winter steelhead comes into West coast rivers looking for
trouble.

I always remember a red letter day on the South Fork of Oregon's
Coquille one day in early December. A cold thermal drag of wind
came down through the canyon where we fished that day typical
winter steelhead weather. Many other fishermen were out on the
frigid river, though, knowing this run was fighting its way up
through the boulder-strewn canyon where the river shook a white
mane, like a plunging wild horse.

I had taken plenty of winter steelhead before this, but not on
the South Fork of the Coquille. Every winter steelhead stream is
different, but as the French proverb says, "The more they are differ-
ent the more they are alike." What makes them alike is winter
steelhead and winter steelhead fishermen. Their differences are
inherent in river personality, and all winter steelhead streams have
plenty of that.

This particular day I had a six-ounce, nine-foot fly rod, rigged
with a spinning reel and eight-pound test line, an excellent setup for
winter steelheading. I made my first cast in a patch of green water,
scarcely five feet in breadth. This green slick, with bits of dancing
foam on its surface, lay in the lee of a huge granite boulder in mid-
stream. White water smoked to either side of it.

I believe my T^eny* of salmon eggs may have just reached bot-
tom before the rod was almost taken out of my hands by a terrific
surge. It wasn't a strike in the orthodox sense. Something came up
solid against that bait, something which moved with all the strength
of the river behind it. I had just enough presence of mind to do
nothing. Line sizzled through the guides for an incredible length of
time.

Down through the roaring white water it went, the rod arched
and with the tip pointing at a waterfall two hundred feet away
pointing prophetically, it seemed to me. For when my steelhead hit
that smother of water, where the river poured over a granite dike
about four feet high, I knew that would be the end.

138 WINTER STEELHEAD

Maybe my winter steelhead sensed this, too. I like to think so,
anyway. It turned just short of the waterfall, streaked back up*
stream, trailing yards and yards of line. Directly before me, in the
very spot where it struck, it came out in a beautiful leap, and the
oval on the water, where it broke the surface was caught in the
current and disappeared downstream.

What do you do with a fish like that? Probably just what I did
lose him, unless you are shot in the pants with luck. I simply couldn't
keep within speaking distance of him. When I began taking in slack
line frantically, hoping against hope he would amuse himself beside
that great boulder until I was again in communication with him, I
came up solidly. It was his second trip down through the white
water, while I was still working on his first one. The hook pulled
loose, and that was that.

Rebaiting with another cluster of eggs, I sighed lustily and cast
back in that postage stamp of green water. At least I would have a
little time before the next strike to think out a course of action,
assuming that another steelhead sheltered in the lee of that granite
boulder which held a sturdy shoulder against the current. My bait
may have sunk three feet below the surface before it was taken
again same wild surge, same wild run downstream.

This time, though, a South Fork steelheader had moved down
beside me, perhaps sensing that I wasn't familiar with this particular
stretch of water. His advice came above the roar of the river. "Fol-
low him out, 77 he shoutedjust that and nothing more.

Downstream I went, jumping from rock to rock, for there were
no gravel bars. I kept a fairly communicative line on my steelhead,
enough anyway to know he was still on and electric with battle.
I came to a ledge overlooking the pool below the waterfall, just as
my fish cleared this last barrier in a beautiful tail-walking leap and
tumble. And here a wall of granite barred any farther progress
downstream.

I stood there on the slippery wet moss, playing my steelhead,
wondering just what to do in case I took the fighting heart out of
him in the wide surging pool below the falls? There was no way for
me to get down there for the final ritual of gaffing him, nor any way

WINTER STEELHEAD 139

for me to guide him back upstream over that roaring surge of white
water.

But winter steelhead fishermen are a cooperative lot. I saw the
bushes shake below the pool. Another steelhead fisherman reeled in
his line, placed his rod on the bank and came upstream, perhaps
sensing my trouble. He waved his gaff at me, shouted something
which was lost in the roar of the river. But I moved my now spent
fish over toward the side of the pool where the water danced in a
cross-current of waves. This winter steelheader eased down the slip-
pery rocks and gaffed him, pulling ashore a steelhead which would
easily go ten pounds.

Afterwards, he detoured around the cliff on which I stood, to
bring him upstream to me. I thought another steelhead would be an
anti-climax that day, so I stopped fishing. I thanked my cooperative
streammate for his trouble, then walked along the pools, watching
other anglers handle this run. Practically every cast in good holding
water produced a strike. But only about a third of the struck fish
were landed.

Tomorrow, on this same stretch of river, ten chances to one you
would be lucky to strike two steelhead in a hard day's angling. This
run was on the move. They seldom hold long in such rough water.
But there is a discernible pattern to their journeying. This pattern
is conditioned by water stages, the personality of the rivers, and is
something which must be learned from the bottom up if you are to
be consistently successful fishing winter steelhead runs.

For example, I often fish Floras Creek in Southwestern Oregon
for winter steelhead. This stream is a short coastal one, scarcely
reaching more than forty miles into the hills. But there is a beautiful
winter run of steelhead here that is, if you can intercept it

This run is usually in the flowage near the mouth of the river by
mid-November. Here it may play around for as much as ten days to
two weeks, if water stages hold. You troll for them here, just behind
the seaward dunes, in water which is quiet and lake-like. But there
is the roar of the surf beyond the dunes, and it is nice fishing with
this overtone of the ocean for company.

Things can be going nicely here, with all the fishermen netting
fish regularly. Then one day it rains steadily. Floras Creek outlet

140 WINTER STEELHEAD

is muddied, the river begins to rise. And, as if you had pressed a
starting button, that run turns upstream. They hit the brushy con-
fines of Floras Creek, which snakes its way up through the swamp,
at express speed. Within a matter of hours, steelhead anglers fishing
the pool below the Highway Bridge begin to take steelhead. Within
three days this particular run will be well above the deadline, where
the Oregon Game Commission has rightly restricted all winter fish-
ing on the spawning grounds.

Winter steelhead entering the smaller streams are "riper" than
those entering the larger, longer rivers. They move faster, and their
eggs are larger, almost ready to be deposited in the clean gravel of
their natal streams. On the larger rivers, even one such as Sixes
River, only a few miles south of Floras Creek, the runs move much
more leisurely. The steelhead are not so ripe when they enter the
river. You can usually contact a Sixes River run by going back next
day and prospecting the water from yesterday's best fishing on
upstream for a distance of not more than three miles. Within these
confines most of the run will be concentrated, though some strag-
glers can be picked up by fishing the same pools for five or six days.
By the same token, some of the run will move rapidly enough to
extend the fishing upstream as much as five miles. But as a general
rule, winter steelheading is best within about three miles of river at
any one given time on average length rivers, such as Sixes, Elk, and
the Coquille.

The concentration points of these runs the "lays" remain con-
stant from year to year. Each winter on Sixes River I take fish from
the same pools and riffles. Before the run is above the Highway
Bridge Pool, and after it leaves tidewater, there are about five good
pools to fish. Usually, when a run is on the make, these concentra-
tion points all give good fishing on the same day.

I know that when I go back next winter, I will find them there at
one stage of their journeying unless the river has drastically cut
new channels at its flood stage. I even know just what landmark
willow pinpoints the most desirable casts, just as I know that if I hit
the South Fork of the Coquille when the run is right, I can again
take a steelhead from behind that large granite boulder, midstream,

WINTER STEELHEAD 141

above the waterfall. And my method of taking will be about the
same each time, depending on the water stage.

Winter steelheading is mostly a matter of drifting eggs through
the holding water, an art not easily learned, even though it appears
deceptively simple. There are many more good dry fly trout fisher-
men than there are qualified egg drifting steelheaders. And just
about as many factors enter into a good steelheading egg drift as
exemplify a good fish taking dry fly float. There must be the same
attention to the water, the same careful selection of terminal tackle.

In drifting eggs properly, there must be a careful choice of sinker
weight and terminal rig. Sinker weight is qualified by the current
When you are drifting in heavy, rough water, enough weight must
be put down to hold just slightly against the current. But there must
not be any anchoring.

You cast quartering upstream, just where the current breaks into
the concentration points. You take up skck gently, remaining in
communication with your bait sufficiently to foil its bumpy progress
along the bottom of the river. At times it will hold for a moment,
break loose, then progress rapidly as a whiff of current animates it.
Each hesitation must be prospected by a slight setting of the hook,
for not all winter steelhead hit with the abandon of that one on the
Coquille's South Fork. At times the take will be so gentle you must
be almost clairvoyant to distinguish between a steelhead take and a
snag.

Where the river is slowed to a whisper, as it often is in many of
the valley pools before it enters the foothills, a very light sinker must
be used often no more than one or two split shot, if you are using a
spinning outfit. In these pools, you may be under the compelling
necessity of actually reeling your offering across the bottom. In doing
this, there should be no steady progress. Movement of your bait
should be erratic: a few feet, a rest, then further movement. This
progress should be across the holding water much as you would
cover it on the surface with a dry fly. Each cast should extend the
limits of the water worked, without the line first falling across any
unworked holding water. In short, the first intimation a winter steel-
head should have of your activity is the bait.

142 WINTER STEELHEAD

Terminal tackle for winter steelheading is very much standard-
ized among the more skilled drifters. Attachment is made at line end
with a three-way swivel. A short dropper leader, not more than six
inches long, is used for the sinker. At the down end of the swivel, the
bait is attached with a three-foot leader. The usual hook is a turned-
down-eye, short-shank in size 2/0 to 4/0, depending on the water
and the angler. The clearer the water, the longer the leader and the
smaller the hook.

The correct manner of attaching eggs to hooks is another fertile
source of discussion among winter steelheaders. Actually, it simmers
down to two basic methods. Some steelheaders place their eggs in
cheesecloth "berries" about the size of small strawberries, which
they somewhat resemble. These berries are placed directly on the
hooks. Some of the more pessimistic winter steelheaders even wind a
few turns of red thread about this whole shebang before committing
it to the river.

More and more winter steelheaders, however, are putting their
egg clusters on the hooks without cloth. They just take a few turns
of thread around the cluster for security. Still others are using bright
red Gantron yarn for egg binding. This method is getting more
adherents each season. The Gantron yarn not only secures the bait,
but also has the added virtue of being very attractive to these trou-
ble-making winter steelhead somewhat like waving a red flag at a
bull.

Winter-run steelhead, however, are not entirely subjected to just
egg drifting alone, though this is the purist approach. Some very
excellent artificials are now making a place for themselves on West
Coast winter steelhead streams.

Once, while fishing a low water period in late November on
Oregon's Elk River, I had to abandon conventional egg drifting for
a silver wobbler to take steelhead- This, with a spinning rod, enabled
me to fish "far and fine,*' a requirement of the gin-clear water. Often,
even at a distance of sixty feet, I could see the flash of steelhead as
they came to the strike from under the bankside willows. All this
after I had spent hours trying to raise one with careful egg drifting.

This day, I am sure, would have been marked down as a lean
period but for that wobbler and light spinning outfit. Only a few

WINTER STEELHEAD 143

dozen steelhead had crossed in from the ocean. And with the water
low and clear, they scarcely knew what to do with themselves. It
wasn't a time for river movement, and the holding waters were too
low and clear for concentration. Eventually, they scattered out,
solitary, Tinder the willows, and unless you dropped a lure with
plenty of action directly before them, they were not interested.
Matching conditions with an artificial, I managed to finagle two
going about nine pounds each.

Wobblers, spinners, Cherry Bobbers, flat fish, Daredevles all these
are taking winter steelhead. The winnowing out of the many hun-
dreds of lures cast and found wanting goes on continually. The
rugged sport of winter steelheading has a solid tradition behind it,
but it is still in a state of flux.

There is much to be discovered about best methods and best
lures. Your winter steelheader is very conscious of this. He is also
very conscious of the finesse required to be consistently successful
in this "knock-down-and-drag-out" angling. He doesn't hang his
head when other fishermen yarn about taking steelhead on flies. As
a matter of angling fact, he grows a bit impatient with the fly fishing
steelhead angler, as befits a fisherman who takes up his fishing where
the fly caster leaves off.

THE FINE ART
OF CATFISH ING

Catfishing is a time for capturing the contentment of a warm
summer night, beside a pond, lake, or river the goodness of a
countryside after nightfall. One always thinks catfishing is at its best
in July, with star-studded nights whose beauty only a poet could
put to words. Then August comes, and there is a newly minted har-
vest moon silvering the water. This is angling at its best, a type of
fishing which more fishermen should do*

By catfishing I mean any of the family from bullheads to heavy
channel cats, blues, and yellows. My favorite, both in the angling
and in the frying pan, is the lowly bullhead or horned pout. Bull-
heads, it seems to me, have more unrecognized angling virtues than
anything that wears fins. Ever fish for bass or trout without success
for two or three days? Who hasn't? You are defeated, beat out by
the experience; then you turn to bullhead. What a beautiful way
to restore morale! True, a bullhead is no tackle-buster. But he puts
up enough argument when hooked to convince an angler he has
played his fish with a master hand.

A catfish pool should be selected carefully, as all catfishermen
know. Just any piece of water will not do if you are to derive full
benefits from your catfishing. The perfume of fresh-cut clover
meadows should drift out over the water. It should be located so

144

THE FINE ART OF CATFISHING 145

that if you listen closely of an evening, you will hear some country
lad whistling as he takes the farm herd to their evening pasture.
Over the stillness of the evening you should occasionally hear the
tinkle of cowbells as the cattle graze, and a dog barking lonesomely.

Sitting beside such a catfish pool, half dreaming, half awake, you
will become aware of a nibbling at the end of your line. There is a
moment of hope that a bullhead has taken the bait. But when no
further movement is detected, you relax. Then there is a real atten-
tion-getting jerk which starts the rod tip vibrating at a great rate.
Don't be in a hurry; a catfisherman never is. When a nibble is felt,
that bullhead is as good as on the bank. Your dyed-in-the-wool cat-
fisherman is apt to pause, savor the moment, dreaming of hot skillets
and the side meat of bullheads rolled in corn meal and fried to a
golden brown. And the bullhead is willing to wait out the moment.
Bring him in now or later; it is all one to a bullhead.

Should someone be with you to share this occasion, some close
fishing companion? Should this be an occasion when you should be
alone? There are two schools of thought on the subject. One main-
tains that all such fishing should be solitary. And there is a lot of
sound logic behind the contention. To keep a proper perspective
amid all the simian antics that fever daily living, there must surely
be a time for withdrawal. And how better can this be accomplished
than by catfishing alone on quiet summer evenings? The other school
of catfishermen are equally convinced that catfishing is a time for
good friends to get together, to exchange confidences when evening
stars are reflected in the water. Seems to me there is an element of
truth in both opinions.

A driftwood fire on the bank of a river, a pot of coffee carefully
brewed and set back to keep warm that is certainly the proper
setting for an exchange of confidences. It is an experience from
which the golden coins of memory are minted. I know of one such
place on a good bullhead river where the current invariably carries
enough driftwood ashore for the evening fire. This is a gesture which
I think cannot be attributed to the vagaries of the current, nor acci-
dental lodgement.

Catfishing hasn't the social standing of dry fly fishing. Although
it is much more democratic, it has a very respectable tradition, none

146 THE FINE ART OF CATFISHING

the less, A dyed-in-the-wool catfisherman may come from any class
or profession. If you were to look in my garage, you would see a
sturdy cane pole racked on some nails driven into the wall. It is well
cared for, and rigged with a casting reel and a line testing thirty-five
pounds. It is not the most attractive piece of angling equipment, but
it is the pride of a very ardent angler, a local minister.

About once a week, during the summer, I will see him coining
down the lane through my orchard. He will be decked out in his
fishing clothes, redolent of the many catfishing baits he has tried.
He secures a spade and goes down below the barn where the ground
is moist and digs angleworms. This ritual will keep him busy until
the sun is well behind the hills. Then he comes in for the evening
meal. Afterwards, he takes his cane pole and goes down to the river.
Not once has he invited me along on his bullheading expeditions.
It is a time when he wants to be alone.

After two or three hours on the quiet evening river he returns.
His pole is carefully placed on its rack in the garage; then he comes
in for a snack in front of the fireplace. Next morning he is back at his
task in a nearby town, carrying the burdens of his ministry. He has
the memory of a river to sustain him; a quiet evening when one can
become intimate with the stars. The healing qualities of a cane pole
and a good pool of catfish water must never be underestimated. It is
unfortunate that more people do not discover this.

But let's get around to the fish itself, and some of the practical
aspects of catfish angling. Take the bullhead. He is probably more
universally available to anglers than any of the other catfish. He is
not a handsome fish once he is out on the bank. It is doubtful if he
would take second place in a "beautiful fish" contest. But on the
table, properly cooked, he takes second place to none. He makes the
best table fish when he is taken from a pond or river which has a
white sand bottom. Where the bottom is mud or silt, he is apt to
taste of his environment, unless precautions are taken. Dressed
properly, however, and thoroughly washed, then soaked in salt water
overnight, he is of excellent flavor.

One of my best bullhead baits is a prepared cheese and blood
bait. I always allow this to "ripen" a few days before use. Another
very good bait to which I am partial is none other than the lowly

THE FINE ART OF CATFISH1NG 147

angleworm. The angleworm is used on a long-shanked hook; the
blood and cheese bait is used on a basket hook** which consists of
a wire spiraled around the shank of the hook to retain the bait These
hooks can be obtained from almost any of the larger suppliers.

Either of these baits, fished out from the cattails in water about
eight to ten feet deep, gets very good results. Sometimes best results
are obtained at other water depths; it all depends on the natural
food available, and that changes with the season. Catfish are natural
bottom feeders. They are especially interested in the nymph and
larva of may flies and caddis flies. Indeed, in some lakes the hatches
of these aquatics have been reduced materially by the introduction
of bullhead or channel catfish. During early summer, confine your
fishing to comparatively shallow water, for these are the places
which have the largest concentration of natural food. Then, as the
season advances, fish at greater depth. It is seldom, however, that
you will have good results on any bottom fish at a depth greater than
eighteen or twenty feet.

Catfishermen use baits which have one or two things in common.
Either they are bloody, such as liver, and to a lesser extent, angle-
worms, or they have a very strong odor an aroma that will knock
your hat off. These aromatic baits are very successful, especially on
rivers where there is a fair current. All fish have a very acute sense
of smell trout, musky, and above all, catfish. Using one of these
aromatic baits creates a scent slick which attracts all downstream
catfish to the offering.

Watch a group of bullhead anglers sitting along a bank, their
cane poles reaching out into the current. The angler farthest down-
stream is usually having the best luck because he is getting full
advantage of the scent slick created by the other fishermen. I have
seen considerable stalling around by a few of the wise members of
the catfishing brotherhood when a party begins their fishing. They
waited until the other members were seated for the evening, then
slipped downstream a bit and had wonderful luck. Those wise old
catfishing philosophers were cashing in on a bit of essential cat-
fishing lore.

Creating plenty of scent slick is a profitable and simple under-
taking when you are catfishing alone. Prepared blood and cheese

148 THE FINE ART OF CATF1SHING

bait can be used in a few small bags suspended in the water at the
head of the pool you fish. Be very generous. Use several smaller bags,
or chum the hole with a liberal supply. The scent slick you create
will keep bullheads or catfish moving upstream and into your pool
all evening.

In bullheading, I go contrary to the usual cane pole and bait-
casting line, good though these are. My outfit is a nine-foot fly rod
which has seen better days. This is rigged with a reel and monofila-
ment line testing ten pounds. My hook is placed on a short dropper
ten inches long. The sinker is attached to another dropper fourteen
inches in length. Both are swiveled at the line end. With this outfit,
the slightest nibble can be felt at once because there is no weight
between the quarry and the rod tip. And when I get a pound bull-
head on that old fly rod, I find it a mighty good substitute for a lot
of more publicized angling.

If you happen to like trot line fishing, there is no greater thrill
than the feel of a heavy blue catfish pulling and thrashing away
as you run your line some moonlight night, or some early morning
when there is still a mist over the river.

Catfishing is truly a great sport, but it is an unhurried sport, a
contemplative sport. You cannot hurry a catfish. He takes his time,
knowing that he has all summer to swallow the bait. It is nice, just
thinking there are such creatures left in this feverish old world. It is
especially nice to slow down, and wait out those warm summer
nights on a river when the stars are caught in each dark pool. And
to be a successful catfisherman you must do just that.

There may be times when you will come from the river empty-
handed, but no catfisherman ever leaves his fishing empty-hearted.
You cannot ask more than that.

RAISE

YOUR OWN
ANGLEWORMS

An angleworm is always good bait, especially on bass lakes, and
on ponds where bullhead and yellow perch have residence. The only
trouble is that you either have more than enough worms, or none
at all. In the spring, when the ground is moist, it is no task to get
angleworms. A little spade work in a garden around the rose bushes,
or even along the margin of the lake itself, will usually turn up
plenty of angleworms. But later in the season, worms are not easy
to find. They bore deep during the hot, dry weather. And they are
almost impossible to digjust at a time when you need them most.

But there is a means of keeping yourself supplied, and at the
same time it is a fascinating hobby raise them yourself. But before
we get into that phase of the subject, let's pinpoint the type of worm
most commonly used for fishing. It is the common angleworm,
sometimes called fishworm. To me, it seems unfortunate that there
isn't the same rich literature about worm fishing as there is about
fly fishing. Certainly one requires as much ability as the other. Yet
here in America one is praised while the other is belittled, a very
positive sign of our angling immaturity. So don't expect too much

149

ISO RAISE YOUR OWN ANGLEWORMS

understanding from your fly-fishing friends when you embark on
your worm-raising venture. But wait; it will be your turn to laugh.

The first requirement for this venture is a box. Its size will de-
pend on your ambitions. For your own personal use, a box four feet
long, two feet deep and three feet wide is sufficiently large. But
once the word gets around among your fishing friends that you have
angleworms in quantity, available at any time, you must either have
an iron will or a large space in which to raise worms. And if some
early morning a furtive-appearing angler approaches you, wanting
some of your worms that will be a fly fisherman. So all in all, it is
probably best to have at least two boxes for your worm-raising
venture.

These boxes must be tightly constructed. Several holes should be
made in the bottom, then carefully screened, to afford good drain-
age without losing your precious worms. After these details are
attended to, you are ready to fill your boxes. The type of soil you
put in is important, too. Just any kind of soil will not do. Avoid
sandy soil and avoid heavy clay soils. The best is a rich, black garden
loam. Put in a layer of this, about six inches thick, and compress it
firmly with your hands. Then put in a layer of grass, leaves, and
moss. This layer should be about eight inches thick. Now put in
another layer of loam. Alternate a layer of leaves, moss, and grass
with one of loam. The top layer should be loam. The box should be
filled to within six inches of the top.

Keep the box in deep shade at all times, and keep it moist.

How do you go about getting a supply of worms? The simplest
way is to dig them in early spring when they are easily found. I have
a can along when I am working my garden, and into it goes every
angleworm I turn up. Later, I transfer them to my angleworm box.
By the time my garden has been turned over by spading, my bait
box holds a season's supply of angleworms. Another good way of
providing initial stock is to do some spade work around a barnyard,
if you have some friend in a rural district. Still another way is to
contact some of the many people who raise worms as a business.
Don't forget that these "starter* worms will proceed to do some
multiplying.

Fishing for winter steel head on Oregon's Salmon River. The warm fire and
camp chair are all a part of this rugged sport. (Oregon State Highway Depart-
ment)

A sandbar and a quiet evening of catfishing. This fisherman believes something
is fooling with his bait.

Landing an eight-pound winter steelhead. (Oregon Sfafe Highway Department)

"X*w

The nondescript flies, called "insects" by the English fly fisherman. With no
wings or tail, they are tied with a full body of yarn and a hackle in the same
color. They match a wide variety of aquatics and terrestrials.

Sample pages from a fisherman's notebook. It covers one pool, though some
of the notes are general. Note how this pool is divided into dry fly and wet fly
water.

Otter traces. (C. J. Henry, U.S. F/sfc and WiW/ife Service)

RAISE YOUR OWN ANGLEWORMS I5J

It is surprising the number of angleworms you can keep in a box
of the size suggested. Adding trash from your garden, such as leaves
and grass, to the top loam of the box, then lightly working it in, will
keep those worms well fed and in the mood to multiply. One char-
acter even adds coffee grounds to his bait box, and always has a lusty
lot of worms for his mid-season bass fishing.

Another precaution: keep the boxes weU screened, or one day the
robins will have a field day at your expense.

The problem of transporting worms on a long fishing trip is
something which must be worked out. For this purpose, a two-
gallon pail is good. Prepare layers for it just as you did in your worm-
raising boxesa layer of moist loam, a layer of moss and leaves-
then load it with sufficient worms for your fishing trip. That will
mean at least a pint of angleworms. Always keep the pail covered
and cool. Moisten it occasionally, and you will have fresh, lively
worms for your entire trip. I have kept them in this manner for a full
three weeks while fishing midsummer lakes.

While actually fishing, a bait can which can be attached to your
belt is an excellent way of carrying worms. It should be partly filled
with moist moss as a bedding for your worms. During the day's
fishing this moss should be carefully moistened, and the can should
be kept out of the direct sunlight. At the end of the day the worms
you didn't use can be returned to your bait pail.

When you raise your own worms, and have a plentiful supply
always available, you are in a position to give the art of worm fishing
really careful study. There is no fresh-water game fish with which I
am familiar that doesn't respond to a properly fished worm. Nor, for
that matter, is there any method of fishing which is more fascinating
than angling with worms. It is a broad field for experiment.

For bullhead fishing, which I consider a much neglected sport,
an angleworm is a prime bait. I cherish those summer evenings when
the bullheads are biting. There is a fine art to just sitting still and
watching your fishing pole, while the evening closes in about you.
It is an art which we Americans need to cultivate more and more.
And there is no better approach to those golden moments than by
starting to raise your own angleworms.

AVERAGING OUT
YOUR FISHING

When Al Lyman figured out a method which paid off on bass
time after time, I think the reason our local fishermen didn't drop
onto it sooner was because of its utter simplicity. Successful angling
methods are supposed to be complicated. So when Al constantly
showed up in town with good catches of bass, we looked for some-
thing more involved and esoteric than a simple angling theory.
Actually, his success was predicated on a very simple, basic piece of
angling know-how. "Averaging out a stream or lake," he called it,
A stream is either on or off during the season. When the water is off
there is little in the way of catches. When it is on everybody with
any angling ability at all takes fish. No water is ever static; there is
constant change.

If a lake or stream affords good fishing now, there is a promise
of an inactive period in the immediate future. If it is inactive now,
there is likewise a promise of an active period in the near future.
Don't ask me why. That is hidden in the intangibles of seasonal
cycles and averages, and in the downright cross-grained cussedness
of fish at times. But these conditions are so commonplace that every
angler of any experience knows they exist, even on the most produc-
tive waters.

152

AVERAGING OUT YOUR FISHING 153

Did you ever arrive at a lake for a few days* fishing and have all
the guides and anglers tell you, "You should have been here last
week. Everybody was taking fish. It hasn't been good for the past
two days, though." Or you get a hot tip that big brown trout are
smashing a fly on your favorite trout stream. You drive two or three
hundred miles, anticipating some wonderful dry fly trout fishing:
"Wish you could have been here last Friday. They were taking

anything!"

Al Lyman did something about such situations. And it was a sim-
ple, foolproof system, too. He wouldn't give a hot tip a second
thought, even if it was about his favorite bass lake. Instead of
following up one of these leads on the best fishing, he looked for the
worst . He phoned the various fishing resorts, local guides, and others
in the know. When he found a piece of water which hadn't pro-
duced for a week or ten days, he moved in for some spangup fishing.
Such water, he knew, was due for a change. And he was there when
that change took place. The improvement in fishing often came the
day he arrived. Sometimes it took a few days for the fishing to
become good. But he was there, and all his fishing was done on lakes
and streams which were beginning to enter an active period.

The difference between a river which is active and one which has
entered an inactive period is very small. A cooling shower in mid-
season can touch off an active period for several days. The arrival of
terrestrial insect flights over a river may be the only added stimulus
needed to touch off an active period which will last the better part
of a week, making the fish very responsive to your flies.

One season I was fishing a mountain river for trout during early
August, and the water was definitely off. This particular stream had
been inactive for almost two weeks, save for some casual feeding
trout late evening and early morning. This reported off period of
a very productive stream was the incentive for my trip. I had fished
there the season before, and I knew this river harbored some big
rainbows and brown trout. So what could be more reasonable than
to expect that it would begin an active period before long?

It needed only some slight change to touch off a period of good
fishing. A thundershower might broaden those slim evening and

154 AVERAGING OUT YOUR FISHING

morning feeding periods. A hatch of may flies, or a flight of ants
could easily be the start of a week or so of good fishing.

By the same token, a river which has produced for the past two
weeks is surely in for an inactive period. You could bet your landing
net on that. It happened just that way in this territory, too. I had a
friend who drove madly over the mountain roads to another river
where a resort was reporting wonderful catches for the past ten days.
He arrived as the fishing was tapering off. In the meantime, the
river on which I fished started building up. One night, at about ten
o'clock, the rain began tap dancing on the roof of my cottage just
a local shower. That really touched off the fishing, though I believe
there would have been a progressive build-up even if this shower
hadn't cooled the water. Next morning, I stood on a shingle of sand
beside a deep green slick and took three sixteen-inch trout. During
the evening fishing I got a repeat performance, taking three more
nice trout from an alder run before another drenching shower sent
me to camp.

I fished the morning and evening rises on this river for a week,
and all during this time I had beautiful fly fishing. At the end of the
seventh day there was a noticeable tapering off. The river was enter-
ing an inactive period. And at about this time the word was getting
around. Anglers began arriving at the resort for some of that won-
derful fly fishing. But they had nothing to look forward to except
a period of inactivity which would produce little in the way of
catches!

Situations of this type have certainly made a convert of me.
I average out a stream or lake carefully before fishing. Now I let the
other anglers chase the hot tips. Give me a productive river which
has been off for a week or ten days. When it is at the bottom of its
productive cycle, there is only one way for it to go toward an active
period. If an angler is on the water when this occurs, it is he who is
passing back the hot tips. That was Al Lyman's secret. It was why
he came into town with those nice catches of black bass.

MAY-THE
UNCERTAIN MONTH

When you have poor luck fishing a stream, lake, or pond in May,
you had better forget the calendar while you investigate the reasons
for your lack of success. In many instances it is nothing more or less
than the fact that the water you are fishing is not "May" water.
It may be "April" water, or it may be midsummer water, so far as
angling methods are concerned.

The erratic advance of the season on a trout stream is often
remarked by discerning anglers. On some water the response in May
is to April methods of fishing: a wet fly fished deep through the
backwaters and eddies. On other streams, in May, you will be best
served by dry flies and the careful techniques of midsummer. At
times, a stream will hit the date exactly, but over the long draw of
the season this is not a common occurrence. There are laggard
streams, and there are those well ahead of the calendar.

Each stream is a self-contained unit with its own built-in cal-
endar. It is not to be hurried, and it is not to be slowed down. The
successful angler matches his fishing to the pace of the individual
stream or lake. Once that is remembered, and your fishing is shaped
accordingly, there will be fewer days when your creel is light. You
will not be trying to force a stream to produce to deeply sunken
wet flies when it is obviously a dry fly fishing stream, with mid- July

155

156 MAY THE UNCERTAIN MONTH

water conditions even though the calendar says it is the fifteenth of
May.

Let me cite an example. One February day I was wading the
shallows of a small lake, examining aquatic food conditions. It was
obvious at once that this water would be ahead of the calendar all
during the forthcoming fishing season. May fly nymphs were robust
and active. They showed constantly in the bottom samples I took.
Given two weeks of warm weather in March and this lake would
begin its cycle of hatches something which one would scarcely
expect before late May on most lakes in this section.

These early hatches are the best, too. There will be an abandon
to the trout feeding here in April which will touch off some wonder-
ful dry fly fishing. Come to this lake in May or June, though, and
you have arrived too late for the best dry fly fishing. There will be
some hatches, of course, but your best fly fishing will be with a wet
fly. As the season spills over into early summer, fishing will again
improve as the terrestrial flies begin to make themselves felt in the
seasonal cycle.

The terrestrials stabilize angling conditions for the remainder of
the season. While the water will be on and off frequently, the
periods are more closely related to weather conditions. A warm
night will usually touch off an active period early in the morning,
which if fished properly will take some excellent trout.

One stream I fish in May is already low and clear, ready for the
most delicate dry fly technique of which I am capable. That means
a careful study of water conditions to relate my fishing to the proba-
ble position trout take in such a stream. I pass up the shallow riffles
which produced to my wet flies in early April because such places
now harbor only small trout. The larger fish are in those green
pockets of water beside sunken logs, under cut banks and such;
already they have taken the best mid-season feeding stations.

These stations, incidentally, merit very careful study. It is not
just an accident that you take large trout from some certain types of
"lays." They have positioned themselves to take advantage of the
seasonal stream bounty. On this particular stream of which I am
speaking, they are in position for dry flies. Water and weather con-
ditions have prepared them for surface flies in May. The stream,

MAY THE UNCERTAIN MONTH 157

flowing through a farm section, lowers and warms much faster than
the average stream having its source in the heavier wooded hills.

On this stream of low, clear water, I have moved upstream a
mile during a day's fishing, creeling eight or ten good trout, and
have passed as many as twenty anglers bemoaning the lack of fish
in these waters all because they were still fishing spots, and using
methods which were productive a few weeks earlier. They were
f ailing to take fish because they had never read the built-in calendar
of this May trout stream. If they had, they would have found that
instead of being May it was actually late July on this particular
stream.

Of course, there is a contrary approach to this uncertain month
of May. Quite often you will find April conditions on some trout
streams well up into June. It all indicates the necessity of carefully
reading the water and relating conditions to the indicated seasonal
method of fishing. And that brings you back to careful matching,
complete matching. The date may be May 15th on the calendar, but
it can be either April 15th or July 20th on the stream you plan to
fish. It is always better to read the water after you have read the
calendar.

MID-SEASON
DRY FLIES

It was a sultry midseason evening, the type which would have
produced a heavy aquatic hatch earlier in the season, and wonderful
dry fly fishing. But at this particular time, with a late July day draw-
ing to a close, not many fish were being taken. Not many anglers
were even trying to take fish in the low, warm water. A fisherman
can stop fishing, I suppose. He can wait out those hot, almost im-
possible periods until a change in weather sweetens his take or he
can do something about it.

My method of touching up otherwise barren water is to use dry
flies. It is not an easy technique, but it is effective if plenty of study
is made of mid-season conditions. That study must not be confined
only to actual dry fly techniques; it must also include a study of fish
concentrations during this difficult angling period. During the hot
mid-season period, all fish tend to concentrate in the deeper waters
in both lakes and streams. Hatches over the water are seldom as
heavy or prolonged as earlier in the season. With so many adverse
factors to contend with, you must know water intimately to fish it
intelligently. A casual acquaintance with mid-season water is never
enough. You must know each spring that cools a warm stretch o
stream, each riffle which aerates and recharges a depleted oxygen
supply. If you are fishing a lake, you must be f amiliar with all the

158

MID-SEASON DRY FLIES 159

streams feeding it. You must be sure of all the sunken ledges. Then
you are ready to drop a dry fly in the right place, at the right time.

It would appear to be a contradiction to say that a fisherman's
most successful method of taking fish in August is with a dry fly,
then to add that fish tend to concentrate in deeper water during hot
weather. But when all factors are related, this apparent contradic-
tion disappears.

On that sultry, late July day I took six bass from that warm-water
lake. My success stemmed from the fact that I knew there was a
small brook gliding through the tall timber to empty into the lake.
Its contribution to my fishing was a ravel of water, cooled by the
forest, but scarcely noticeable to a casual angler. But as the lake
lowered during the season, a low bell-like tinkle could be heard
where this brook poured over the cobbles.

I pushed my ancient scow along the fringing cattails until I came
to the confluence of this small stream. The depth here, where it
touched the lake, averaged about six feet. I stopped my scow forty
feet or so from the willows, then waited five, ten, fifteen minutes.
Every vestige of disturbance disappeared before I attempted a cast

Working out a bit of line, I dropped a Brown Bi-Visible dry fly
well up against the willows where the brook sang. I waited, watch-
ing my fly drift away from the brush in the faint current generated
by the in-pour of the small stream. Five minutes later the cast still
lay upon the water. It had drifted close to the lily pads and sago
pond weed. I worked the fly slightly. The action simulated a surface
insect struggling briefly and to no purpose on the surface. A bass
smashed my fly in an explosion of swamp-stained water.

I worked him away from the willows and fringing weeds, and
eventually slipped my landing net under a two-pound largemouth.
After netting him I waited, resting the water for ten minutes. Then
I dropped my fly in the same location again. I took another and
another, until the clump of willows was a gloomy, indistinct blob
in the gathering evening dark.

This is one type of water which pays off on both lake and stream
in mid-season. All fish tend to concentrate at those points where the
water is cooled and aerated. On a stream, look for cold springs feed-
ing it. Look for small brooks leading out of the brush-choked draws

160 MID-SEASON DRY FLIES

where the sun cannot warm the water. Where these meet the larger
streams, you will find fish concentrations. And that is true, regard-
less of the species.

In lakes, a sheltering rock ledge which comes close to the sur-
face is always good. There will be much colder water around it, due
to its damming effect on the thermal currents. You can, of course,
use deep-running plugs and deeply sunken flies for such places. But
often they are less than a complete matching. Mid-season finds
plenty of food coming in from the surface, for this is a time when the
terrestrial flights and hatches are beginning to make themselves felt
in the diet of most fish.

Terrestrial flights usually occur in late evening, or at night. A dry
fly fished during the dark hours is always good. Sometimes, on heav-
ily fished brown-trout water, it is the one method which produces
large trout.

I repeat, a careful matching is essential for mid-season success.
That doesn't mean, of course, that you have to match some terrestrial
insect with your dry, down to its delicate wingtips. Match color,
match size then follow up with careful presentation.

Mid-season colors are predominately brown, gray, and black. A
small Brown Bi-Visible is often very productive during this period
because it touches on so many insects* coloring. It is good when there
is a hatch of midges over the water, and it will serve, at other times,
when grasshoppers come into the water from adjoining meadows.
Often it will take fish when there is a hatch of may flies or caddis
flies. A Brown Bi-Visible doesn't duplicate any of these insects
exactly, but it has color associated with practically all mid-season
surface food. The primary requirement is to match the prevalent
size even down to a size 16 fly for some of the smaller midge
hatches.

Where no hatches are in progress, a grasshopper-type fly will
cover much of the expected terrestrial food in mid-season. Here,
again, stay on the small size. A size 14 dry fly, imitating a grass-
hopper, need only be matched for color. As you increase the fly size,
a more careful matching must be undertaken. For low, clear water,
it is always good angling technique to keep both your fly and leader
tippet small and light.

MID-SEASON DRY FLIES 16!

The only mid-season exception to this is when you want an entire
change of pace. Then, quite often, you can use a larger fly with
success. I have taken trout when there was a hatch of midges over
the water, using a Fan Wing Royal Coachman, size 8. Trout are
always attracted to a hatch, but that doesn't mean they have enough
interest to feed actively at this time, especially if the hatch is small,
and in the more exposed section of a stream. Even so, if you will
prospect the natural concentration points at this time, using a large
dry, such as a fan wing, you can often induce them to strike.

That is the exception, and should be considered only for those
times when you have rather unusual stream conditions. As a rule,
the smaller flies cover many more angling conditions during the
mid-season period. A very good choice is one of the spider variants.
They are probably as consistently successful on low, clear water as
any dry fly. There are three color phases which fit this season
nicely brown, black, gray. I have even taken summer steelhead on
a size 12 Dark Variant.

The best rules for this difficult, mid-season fishing are to fish it
fine, -fish tt far, and keep it small.

AUTUMN
PANFISHING

After spending the warm summer months in comparatively deep
water, many species of fish move into the shallows for a short while
in autumn. At such a time, spring angling conditions are duplicated.
The best of this fall fishing, in most sections, is provided by the pan-
fish. Almost any pond or lake has its quota of yellow perch, bluegill,
and crappie, and they are feeding voraciously during the Indian
summer. If you angle for them with light fly fishing tackle, you have
very sporting fishing.

The name "panfish" is unfortunate for crappie, bluegill, and
bream. It makes an unjustified distinction between them and the
more favored fish such as trout and bass. This distinction should be
made in the tackle used, rather than the quarry. If you go after
crappie with a salmon-fishing outfit, he is not a sporty fish to take.
Go after him with proper, light fly-fishing tackle and he is very
thrilling fishing. And crappies have the added merit of often being
found much closer to home. A fly rod for panfishing should be
within a weight limit of 2 1 A to 3 1 A ounces, and not over eight feet
long. A favorite of mine is a 7^-foot, 3-ounce rod with dry fly
action, matched with a HEH double-taper fly line.

In autumn, I move in on some pond where the cattail stand is
reflected in the quiet water. The whole countryside is still, as if

162

AUTUMN PAN FISH INS 163

waiting for the first flight of teal to drop out of the honey-colored
sky. I rig with a number 10, Black Nosed Dace streamer fly. Working
out a bit of line, I drop it close to the cattails, in not more than two
or three feet of water. I let it drift down until it just clears the
bottom, then I start an erratic retrieve. If I have the good fortune
to dry my fly near a school of panfish, I get a strike at once. If the
first few casts fail to produce, I push my boat along until I come to
other water.

Usually it takes only a little prospecting to find good fishing.
Somewhere close by, the yellow perch or crappie will be feeding;
and there is always a chance of taking a large-mouth bass, too.
Against this eventuality, I always carry plenty of backing on my fly
rod reel. A bass is not easily handled with such light tackle, and the
achievement of landing one is an added thrill.

Streamer patterns for this late season panfishing are the most
consistently productive. The Black Nosed Dace has produced best
for me, but the Royal Coachman Bucktail is also good. So are the
Black and White Bucktail, the Orange Dace, and the Shiner Dace.
Best pattern size is a number 10.

Streamers have a natural place in pond fishing, where they pro-
duce best in autumn. Minnows, on which streamer flies are based,
seldom stray far from weed beds, cattails, and other protective cover.
By the same token, foraging fish are attracted to the weed beds by
the abundance of minnows found there. Get a streamer close to the
bottom in these weed-edged waters, give it the erratic, darting
movement of a minnow, and the results are certain.

Panfish can often be detected if you watch the margin of the
weed bed for active feeding, if there is no riffle on the water to
cancel out observation. Late-season insects are constantly falling
into the water from those weed beds. Sometimes, during a warm
autumn day, you can turn again to your dry flies for some excep-
tional fishing.

There is yet another type of fly which is also excellent for pan-
fishing. Indeed, these flies are good on just about any fish. In Eng-
land, they are barred from fly-fishing competitions when wet, ortho-
dox flies are specified. This class of flies is called "insects" for no
good reason that I can discover. They resemble no insect on the

164 AUTUMN PANFISHING

stream, though they have elements of color and form of several.
They are tied full-bodied, with no tail or wings, just a wisp of
hackle-tied buzz. Mostly they are tied in solid colors: black body,
black hackle; natural red body, natural red hackle; gray body, gray
hackle. Hook sizes are 10 and 12. These flies are good not only on
panfish in autumn but they are also very good trout flies all during
the season. Another added merit is that they are very simple for the
beginning fly-tyer to make.

Nymph flies are often good for autumn panfishing. These, how-
ever, are more of a special-occasion fly. When there is an exception-
ally warm autumn day, and the thermal turnover of the water is
retarded, natural nymph activity is quite often stepped up. Then
you can use a nymph based on may flies or caddis flies for some very
productive fishing.

The charm of this autumn fishing is not only in the abundance
of fish, but also in the uncrowded waters. At this time, most anglers
have turned away from the lakes and streams and you can enjoy
solitary fishing. In these days of crowded streams and lakes, that
has an added value hard to estimate.

WINTER

TROUT STREAMS

Ever wonder about your trout streams in winter: what effect the
severity of winter weather has on next season's fishing? What do
trout feed on during the winter months? The may flies are gone
and caddis flies are no longer over the quiet pools, you remember.
Now those streams are covered with ice and many are muffled in
snow. How about winter survival of the trout population? Such
questions had no authoritative answers until Professor Paul H. Need-
ham of the University of California, and John A. Maciolek, United
States Fish and Wildlife Service, made their studies of winter trout
streams.

The information they turned up is not only of value to fishery
biologists but also has direct stream application during early spring
fishing. For example, you have heard that there is little use in fishing
when waters drop to their low winter temperatures. Trout are sup-
posed to become inactive, taking but little food a very poor pros-
pect for a fly, spinner, or worm. Many anglers believe that when the
bottom drops out of the thermometer on opening day, one might
just as well stay home. No trout will feed until the temperature
goes up. But Needham and Maciolek found that trout fed actively
all winter in the ice-choked stream they had under observation.
This feeding was almost wholly confined to bottom grubbing for

165

f6* WINTER TROUT STREAMS

nymphs. But during weather breaks, they observed surface feeding
trout over the few open-water portions of their stream, feeding on a
hatch of small midges. Trout also rose to a hatch of black flies (not
further identified) during the warm days of January and February.
Water temperatures at this time were around 40, or slightly higher.

These winter studies indicate the importance of nymphs and
worms for early spring trout fishing. They also indicate the correct
method of fishing them. Most anglers' lack of luck during the early
season stems from the fact that they are well ahead of seasonal
stream activity. There is little change of water temperatures or food
types on trout streams from January on through the first few weeks
of the northern trout season. Successful early spring trout fishing
must be based on a projection of winter stream conditions. Little if
any change takes place until wanner weather occurs.

What are the best nymph fly patterns for this early spring fish-
ing? That question was answered by Needham and Maciolek in their
studies of winter food habits. May fly nymphs, caddis fly larvae, and
stone fly nymphs appeared regularly in the winter sampling. Midge
nymphs also appeared. So flies based on may fly nymphs would be
a very good selection for spring trout fishing.

Large numbers of these bottom-clinging nymphs were dislodged
by fluctuating stream flow, and were collected in "drift samples."
These drift samples would indicate a constant supply of nymphs in
the feeding channels, carried deep by the current. They also indicate
the very best method of spring nymphing.

This deep nymphing during early-season trouting does pay off
consistently, as I can testify. I am especially reminded of a cold
rainy opening day, when I fished three hours to limit out, using a
deeply sunken nymph. While I waited for two other members of my
fishing party to appear, I watched an expert nymph fisherman work
the same water in which I took my fish. He also was fishing deep.
The only difference between my fishing and his was that he used a
fly based on a stone fly nymph, while mine was based on a may fly.
That angler knew the value of keeping his spring fishing geared to
winter conditions. Later, as the water warms, nymphing in the
shallower portions of the stream is more productive but not while
winter conditions prevail In Chapter 3 you will recall I said that

Raccoon. (Rex Gary Schmidt)

Muskrat. (V. B. Sheffer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Bear track. (E. A. Goldman, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Muskrat tracks. (H. I. Dozier, U.S. Fis/i and \V//d//fe Service)

This sign betrays a landowner with a heart. A boy and a trout stream just
naturally go together.

WINTER TROUT STREAMS 167

the most productive nymphing during the early season is to be had
in the shallow portions of a trout stream. That, of course, applies
to those streams which have had sufficient sunshine to touch off the
hatches in the more shallow portions, before the deeper water is
warmed enough to contribute anything to this activity. But during
the very early season, on the extreme northern trout streams, this
hasn't occurred. You still have winter conditions. At this time, the
most sheltered and warmest water is in the deep pools and back-
waters.

Needham and Maciolek turned up some interesting winter sur-
vival statistics of trout, which have a direct bearing on the next
season's fishing. Their investigations showed a loss as high as 60
per cent in some instances, directly traceable to the severity of
winter weather. This loss was higher than the average winter kill,
but it does show how next season's fishing is conditioned by the
winter weather. A mild winter, giving a higher percentage of sur-
vival, should produce better fishing. A severe winter is felt in the
following season by a lessened take. The kill was found to be much
higher among hatchery trout than among wild trout, either rainbows
or brown. On club waters, which are sometimes planted after the
fishing season, with the thought that such trout will be wild, lusty
battlers on opening day, there can be a heavy winter kill.

THE

FISHERMAN'S

NOTEBOOK

Most fishermen keep records of their catches, yet very few keep
notebooks and relate those catches to the water and weather. A real
record is one thing which can make your angling more interesting
and productive. What type of weather did you have when you took
your best fish last year or last month? It isn't enough for your notes
to say it was sunny, overcast, or rainy. Get a barometer reading.
Indicate in your notes whether it was at the end of a stormy period,
at the approach of a storm, or clear. Eventually you will find a pat-
tern of weather which gives you your best catches.

Your notes should also show the time of day which produced
best for you, and the lure you used. But that isn't all. Another place
a notebook comes in handy is in making a map of your best fishing
spots. This is especially desirable when you are fishing lakes or large
rivers. Such flat water is hard to distinguish unless you give your-
self a few "fixes'* by mapping in landmarks which pinpoint your
exact location.

Quite often there will be a rock ledge, shoal, or such in mid-lake,
which is a hot spot indeed. One day you are fishing and drop onto
it. After a wonderful, successful excursion you return to camp. When

168

THE FISHERMAN'S NOTEBOOK 169

you look out across the wide expanse of water, remembering your
luck and hoping for a repeat, can you return to the exact spot? It is
highly unlikely, unless you take the precaution of making a sketch
while you are actually on the spot.

Here is how I do it. I mark a point on the paper to represent my
fishing "hot spot/' and then I make note of two prominent objects
on either shore. These are sketched in. A line is drawn between
them across my point, and I now have one direction. Be sure to
pencil in a full description of these two landmarks. A bearing with a
compass is always helpful, though not essential. Another observa-
tion at right angles to these is then taken. Then a line is drawn to
bisect my first line at the hot-spot fishing location. With this rough
sketch, I can find it again without trouble.

My notebook doesn't stop here, though. Along with my rough,
map of this hot spot, I make a note of the time of day when the fish-
ing was best, the water depth at which I had my best luck, and
the lure used. All this will give me better than an even chance of
getting a repeat. For, when next season rolls around, I will be read-
ing that notebook, canvassing the possibilities of spending a day
fishing. Here it is mid- June, say. What did I do last year at this time?
I ready my notes on the water I fished last June and come to a
sketch of some favored water which produced. That gives me better
than an even chance of getting action without too much exploring
around for some good fishing.

There is another very good use of a map, too. Occasionally one
loses a valuable piece of equipment overboard. If you map the
locality carefully, it is a very easy matter to return to the exact spot
with suitable equipment and recover the gear. Last season, a fisher-
man trolling a lake lost a valuable casting rod. I helped him make
a map of the spot, just as I would have mapped it to pinpoint a
good fishing location. This enabled him to return later with a heavy
cord, well weighted to keep it on the bottom, and with plenty of
fishhooks attached to it. By dragging it back and forth over the
previously mapped spot he picked up his rod and reel from about
thirty feet of water.

The most successful fly fisherman with whom I have ever fished
is an inveterate map maker. That was a part of his fishing technique

170 THE FISHERMAN'S NOTEBOOK

that wasn't apparent while watching him on a trout stream. What
was apparent was that he always seemed to be in the right spot at
the right time to take trout.

During an evening's fishing with him I had declined to fish the
pools first; instead, I followed him on the water. It worked out very
well, too. I simply cast the same fly patterns he was using a size
14 Blue Upright in the forepart of the evening, and a size up to a
number 10 during the last part of our fishing. I took pains to deliver
my fly from about the same positions he used, and to about the same
approximate spots. All this added up to a pattern of angling which
was very successful. He passed without a second glance some sec-
tions of the stream that, had I been alone, I would have worked
carefully with my flies.

While sitting on the bank of the stream, talking the last golden
haze away after limiting out, I asked about his fishing. Out of his
fishing jacket he brought a well-worn notebook. In it each pool was
drawn, and over each sketch there were cross marks where trout
had taken a fly. The time of season, the best fly, and method were
all carefully noted. What a whale of a lot of information he had
about his local trout stream.

"How about that water you passed, just below Red Barn Pool?"
I asked. 'It looked good to me."

'Take a look at this," he replied, handing me his notebook.
"Notice how that pool began failing about the middle of June?
Not much use to bother with it now in July. But look at the way
it picks up late in autumn."

All the data on this particular piece of water certainly spelled
out early spring and late autumn fishing. I examined the marginal
notes on his maps and sketches. Hatches were neatly penciled in:
the kind, the date they occurred, and their duration. Tlie entire book
pinpointed the right time, and the right place.

Suppose it is the first of August. You turn to such a well-mapped
stream, and you have notes. "Small blue may fly over the water.
Hatch started at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It built up in intensity
until a half hour before dark. Concentrated on the quiet water."
That is a helpful lot of information with which to start fishing, even

THE FISHERMAN'S NOTEBOOK 171

though you get no repeat on the hatch. Your pattern and fly size is
indicated.

There is yet another dividend to this map making. I can think of
no better way of learning what constitutes the best fishing water
than by carefully penciling in the exact spots which produce over a
season. Little nuances of difference between productive and non-
productive water begin to appear.

This mapping of your best-known fishing streams and lakes can
also be projected to strange waters. Seasons, water stages, and the
present food used are not essentially different from one water to
another, except as the seasonal advance makes them so. When you
have carefully mapped several streams for a season, hot spots are
easily pinpointed on a stream, even though you have never fished
that water before. This, of course, is true whether you are fishing
for trout, bass, or panfish.

BIRDS ALONG
A TROUT STREAM

From the standpoint of taking trout, one of my favorite streams
has little attraction. But over the seasons, it is one I often fish be-
cause it has a beautiful, fascinating complement of birds. In late
May, when birds are still busy with their nestings and young, this
stream is well worth any fisherman's attention, even though he
would be lucky to take more than four keeper-size trout during a
day's fishing.

I always select one spot on this brushy stream for eating my
noonday sandwich. A small brook pours across the cobbles here,
under a wide-spreading maple, joining the larger stream above a
shadow-haunted sandbar. It is a quiet place, but one where there
is always some woodland drama or activity that is, if I am perfectly
still and wait patiently.

Birds nest in that wide-spreading maple. Grosbeaks sing above
the companionable chatter of the riffle. Once, while sitting here in
the warm sunshine, my back to a small cedar tree, a hawk skimmed
in over the alders. Two nesting grosbeaks rose to the attack like
interceptor planes, their alarm cries sounding shrill and piercing
above the forest. Cliff swallows swarmed out of a high granite
escarpment and robins came from the bankside alders. When that
frantic hawk disappeared over the trees, he was being followed by

172

BIRDS ALONG A TROUT STREAM 173

a swarm of angry birds. After awhile, they returned the grosbeaks
to their maple, the robins to such secret places as they use for nest-
ings. There was singing again along the stream.

Here, in season, a ruffed grouse brings her young for dust bathing
tiny creatures looking for all the world like baby chicks, except
for their cautious wildness. On those occasions when I have inter-
cepted them, they have given me very friendly entertainment. Down
toward the sandbar through the protective weeds they come, the
procedure always the same. First the old grouse steps out cautiously
from the cover, her head cocked this way and that, as she looks and
listens. Satisfied, she makes a low clucking call, and the chicks
come scurrying out of the sheltering weeds.

They go over the gravel bar methodically, picking up minute bits
of tree pollen, and stray insects. After a while, apparently tiring of
this, they select a warm spot where there is plenty of dried silt mixed
with the sand, and they dust-bathe.

I often wonder what becomes of those ruffed grouse families?
This section is never hunted, yet they never seem to increase from
year to year. Occasionally, I will flush a grouse and her chicks below
or above this stream section, but the ruffed grouse population re-
mains very stable from season to season. They give this stream a
touch of wildness that helps to make it a beautiful place to spend
a day fishing, even though one's creel is invariably light.

Another bird which is part and parcel of most trout waters is the
water ouzel. As much at home in the water as a trout itself, it will
walk on the bed of a stream, wings outspread to keep it on the
bottom. Moving around under water, it searches the rocks and gravel
for nymphs and caddis fly larvae the very food of trout and other
fish.

Water ouzel nests are usually built near waterfalls, or on rocks
where spray keeps them constantly wet. Their construction of moss
and lichen makes them so inconspicuous that they are not easily
found by an angler unless he is very familiar with their nesting
habits. One nest that I found while fishing a wilderness river was
built only a few inches above the white water of a riffle. Long
streamers of wet moss on a granite boulder had been parted, and
the nest set on an outjutting of rock. Spray constantly wetted the

174 BIRDS ALONG A TROUT STREAM

moss, and the small aperture which the birds used in getting in and
out of the nest was scarcely noticeable.

When I fished up through this section of river, my attention was
attracted by the tiny head and bright beady eyes of a water ouzel
thrust through the opening in the moss. When I moved closer, the
nesting bird flitted away, the disturbance of her wings almost closing
the aperture but not so close that I couldn't see three small eggs
in the nest.

The singing of a water ouzel on a trout stream is one of the most
beautiful of bird songs. Quite often, anglers will hear this shy cascad-
ing music above the sound of the water, without knowing what
woodland musician is responsible. It is a rare song, as rare as it is
beautiful. The bird selects a site near its nesting, and always close
to the water for its singing. Here on a bright spring morning it will
pipe the sun to the river.

A most friendly bird found along trout streams is the tomtit.
This brown, diminutive wren inhabitant of the forest is often seen
flitting from fern to fern, examining each frond for insects. Its tail
is held jauntily over its back, making it very easy to recognize, even
if its coloring and small size were not a dead giveaway.

Quite often, while eating a noonday sandwich, I have had a
tomtit come for a visit. The first hint of his presence will be a low,
cheerful call. Then I will see him grasping a grass stem or fern,
examining me closely. If I remain perfectly quiet, he will eventually
fly over and perch on my knee, shoulder, or hat. Then he will drop
down to my sandwich for the feasting.

There is a tumbledown miner's shack on one river I fish, which
often serves me as an overnight camp. I can go to bed here, com-
pletely assured that I will not oversleep and miss the early morning
fly fishing. I am sure to be awakened by a flicker drumming on a
loose shingle of the cabin roof, before the first shaft of sunlight
breaks over the mountains. There is plenty of time after I am
awakened to build a fire, make a pot of coffee, then be off to the
river.

Once, while I was resting a pool on the Umpqua River, a ruby-
throated hummingbird came to my Royal Coachman fly. The fly
was stuck in my hatband, and I was sitting on the bank waiting for

BIRDS ALONG A TROUT STREAM 175

things to cool dawn a bit after landing a steelhead. The humming-
bird dropped down to me in a scroll of velvet wings to examine my
fly, then flitted away. But it returned at once, unable to make up its
mind about this exotic flower. The second time it held steady (I
did, tool) while it methodically proved that, despite its appearance,
the Royal Coachman held no nectar. Convinced, it moved away to
busy itself about the brilliantly hued salmonberry along the stream.
These are only a few of the birds which have made fishing some-
thing more than just taking fish. There are many others. Unless you
temper your fishing with a careful study of these streamside in-
habitants, you are missing some of the best of angling. After all,
fishing is more than just taking fish. It is a way of life.

THE

WILD FISHERS

One of the most satisfying and amusing parts of all angling is
sharing a stream or lake with some of the wild fishers. These are a
source of unending delight, once you become acquainted provok-
ing at times, and startling; at other times they are a downright
thieving set.

Fishing a wilderness river one early June day, I found the trout
taking easy too easy for interesting fishing. A hatch of may flies
were over the water great golden-bodied insects breaking their
wing cases on the surface, and cutthroat trout taking them avidly.
I eventually found it more interesting to test different approaches
to this hatch. I changed to a nymph pattern, and imitated die under-
water activity of the sub-imago hatch. I changed to streamers and
imitated the smaller fish life attracted to the hatch. Each change
produced good, sizable trout, practically all of which I carefully
released.

But in late evening, while fooling around with this hatch, and
being on a solitary fishing trip, I selected and killed two trout for
my evening campfire two twelve-inch beauties which I visualized
rolled in pancake flour, and browned to a turn while I brought a pot
of coffee to perfection. But the wild fishers had other plans.

176

THE WILD FISHERS 177

When the last rays of the sun were slanting down through the
firs, and a cold thermal drag of wind ruffled the stream surface and
slowed the hatch, I turned away from the river. I planned to clean
my fish before moving up to my overnight camp situated beside a
deep pool which always held a complement of stars at night. I had
tossed those two trout well back on the gravel during my late eve-
ning fishing, not wanting to soil my fish bag. But now, when I came
to get them, they were gone. I searched the gravel bar carefully in
the gathering twilight. Nothing. It was as if those two trout had
returned to the river, or disappeared in thin air.

My search eventually took me near a large boulder, and behind
this, big as life and three times as beautiful, I met my wild fishers.
A mink and three small kits had my catch. The mother mink, as
befitted her maternal status, was eating well up toward the head
of one trout, with the three little mink sedately dining on the rest,
all in a row. My other trout was placed to one side, no doubt with
the idea that it would make a splendid snack later on, or perhaps
breakfast.

I watched these brown, sleek visitors eating my trout for a mo-
ment, then I had an inspiration. Gently easing my fly rod tip over
the escarpment, I reached down with my fly and, more by good
fortune than skill, managed to hook it in the gills of the unoccupied
trout. Up the granite escarpment I moved it, an inch at a time, fear-
ing that my hook would pull out, or that the mother mink would
become aware of my knavery which is just what she did.

She turned, looked at the place where the trout had lain, even
moved over to put a questioning nose on the empty ground where
it had lain. Then glancing up with her dark, beady eyes, she saw
my trout, perhaps a foot off the gravel, and she bounded up to
retrieve it, shaking the hook free in the process. She wasn't letting
that trout get away, not with a hungry family to feed. She brought
it back to the exact spot from which I had taken it, clucking and
scolding, perhaps commenting on the perversity of trout which take
off up the side of a granite escarpment the minute one's back is
turned.

I left her and her family without disturbing them further and
hastened back to the river to take advantage of the tail end of the

178 THE WILD FISHERS

rapidly diminishing hatch. I managed to finagle two more trout
within a short while, one a ten-incher, the other a fourteen-inch
scraper. This time I kept them well under my eye until I was ready
to dress them for my campfire.

Mink, like most wild fishers, are usually nocturnal in habit. The
first intimations an angler has that he is sharing his stream with them
are tracks along the sandbars, in and out of holes, under logs. For
they are very curious animals and explore every possibility for food
along a stream or lake. The track is five-toed, with the footpad
naked, the soles covered with hair. It is well-rounded, with the claws
showing in wet sand. Once you know what to look for, it is easily
identified.

Mink are excellent swimmers, and are just as much at home in
water as on land. They move with all the grace of a trout itself in
the water, but appear awkward on land. Indeed, they can take
trout directly from a stream, especially at night when big trout
move into the shallows to grup for nymphs and caddis fly larvae.

The fur of the mink is usually dark brown in color, though some,
especially in their summer pelage, are a pale brown.

Sometimes and it is a fortunate day you will see mink kits play-
ing on a sun-washed gravel bar. They play rough, often getting
squeals of pain from their litter opponents biting, rolling over and
over, as serious and as comical as young kittens.

The otter is another wild fisher, but not as common as mink. On
canoe trips through the back country, however, you will often see
their slides on steep banks. Sometimes, too, if the Red God smiles
on you, you may be witness to a whole family of otters taking their
turns on one of these slides: arrowing down a slick bank to hit the
water and disappear with only a slight riffle to mark their entrances.
A moment later a sleek brown head will pop above the surface to
watch the next one come zipping down to the water.

Otters like to romp in family groups; or taking to land, to work
the countryside cooperatively for whatever they may turn up in the
way of food. Like their smaller cousin, the mink, they feed on cray-
fish, fresh water clams, small water snails, frogs, and duck eggs. And
again like mink, they are capable of catching fish directly from a
stream, and often do. I once saw two otter take a chinook salmon

THE WILD FISHERS 179

from a West Coast river, finagling this spawning salmon with a co-
operative bit of fishing which worked perfectly. One sent the salmon
driving frantically over a shallow riffle, where the other otter picked
it up and dragged it ashore to share it with his fishing partner. The
routine of finagling this salmon worked so efficiently that I have no
doubt that it is a very common and rewarding practice where there
is a heavy run.

One episode having to do with otter is well worth the telling.
This occurred just as I came on a stream, planning to spend an after-
noon there. I stood for a moment watching the surface of the river
to see if there was any activity which might suggest a fly or method
of angling.

I think I stood thus for perhaps ten minutes, watching two pools
before me representative pools which should indicate much of the
normal activity or lack of activity on the entire river. Suddenly I
saw the disturbance of a terrific rise under some overhanging wil-
lows. I immediately eased down to this pool, worked out a bit of
line, and presented a Brown Bi-Visible dry fly. I selected this fly
because it could match so large a segment of normal aquatic activity
on this stream from may fly to salmon fly, to a brown caddis fre-
quently over the water though there was no detachable activity
now.

When I dropped that fly I thought of nothing short of a twenty-
inch rainbow making such a disturbance. But actually I was present-
ing it to an otter no more and no less. While my fly rested on the
quiet water, well up against the trailing willows, I saw him on the
shadowed bank under the trees, eating away on a huge eel about
two feet long. Of course I was deflated after the pulse-thumping
build-up: visualizing a big trout just waiting to come to my fly,
rolling up to punch it solidly. But that otter made up for my dis-
appointment. I wondered why a solitary otter was abroad during
midday? But this stream, a short coastal one, had a run of lamprey
eels in late April. That was the attraction. The why of the midday
fishing was something else again; those lampreys would be just as
vulnerable with the coming of night. But here he was fishing, more
or less against the rules. I watched it for the better part of an hour.

180 THE WILD FISHERS

I saw it go down in the clean sweep of water to emerge with
another eel. The she, for by this time I had decided this was a
female, ate this one also, neatly, leaving only the elongated lamprey
skeleton as a testimony to her efforts.

After polishing off this second eel, she again took up her fishing,
bringing another to her landing under the willows. But this one she
took in her mouth, with its tail and head dragging, and moved up-
stream along the bank to where a huge fir log lay partly on the steep
bank, but with one end in the water. Under this she darted, to dis-
appear in a hole in the bank.

I waded across the river to examine the place. It showed un-
mistakable evidence of a den. Listening close I could hear a clucking
murmur of the kits and the old one's scolding concern as she
delivered her burden.

I did take three nice trout on that Brown Bi- Visible; but the best
part of that day was the otter. It is like that, however, with most
wild fishers, once you become acquainted with them; you can read
their sign, as woodsmen say.

One of the most amusing of wild fishers is the raccoon, and one of
the most common, east or west. The raccoon is very nocturnal in
habit. But there are enough exceptions to this rule to make most
anglers aware of him during the day. I have seen raccoon prospect-
ing along streams time after time. He is a beautiful grey-coated
animal, with a dark-ringed tail, and a black mask across his eyes
which gives him the appearance of a bandit. He is about the size of
a cocker spaniel. In intelligence he has few equals in the animal
world, and no superiors.

The first evidence of his stream activity an angler is likely to see
is his distinctive tracks. These are often compared to the imprint of
a baby's hand pressed in the mud. You will see these tracks along
the edge of ponds, lakes, and rivers. And the author of those prints
is always busy. He explores every stream and lakeside possibility for
food. His favorites are crayfish, freshwater clams, fish, and frogs.

Evidence of his activities is often given by clam shells, and the
remains of crayfish he leaves at some favorite dining spot. His nimble
black fingers can shuck out a crayfish or clam with surprising effi-

THE WILD FISHERS 181

ciency. He eats, sitting on his haunches, holding his food in his
hands, his grey whiskers moving with the delightful effort.

One very odd and amusing raccoon ritual is the washing of his
food before eating. Once, fishing a bass lake (or perhaps pond is the
better word, it being a small willow lined body of water), I caught
sight of a raccoon working the weedy margin of the water, looking
for frogs. I remained motionless beside a clump of willow, amused
as always at the antics of this gay, masked bandit, at his assurance.
He moved along the bank until he flushed a frog, and it plopped
into the water from its sun-warmed sanctuary on the weedy shore.
Then, casually, with a sureness which spelled long familiarity with
the process, Mr. Raccoon would move up to the bank, peer down
into the water to locate his prey, and then with a quick grab he
would secure the frog. But despite the fact that this frog was but
recently from the water, he carefully washed it before eating. I
witnessed another peculiarity of raccoon table manners that day.
After washing the frog, he rolled it between his front paws until it
appeared much elongated, and then he snipped off its head with one
neat bite. After this he sat there, reflectively eating his victim, while
holding it very much as a small boy holds an ice cream cone.

Fishing and camping along wilderness streams, where there are
large numbers of raccoon, an angler must look to the security of his
camp supplies, lest he find raccoon have done some pantry raiding
during the night. They are especially fond of trout, and will snag
one right out of your creel if you leave it lying on the ground at
night. I have had them take cooked fish left on a camp table after an
evening meal.

Really to become acquainted with raccoon, however, save all
your camp scraps and bait a sandbar. You can place your offering
on a clean bit of river beach, where tracks will tell you next morning
about the number of visitors. Do this for a few nights running, and
raccoon will have you marked down as an easy touch. They will
come nightly for their scraps and fish heads and progressively
earlier, too. Eventually you will see them just at dusk, if your baiting
is sufficiently far away for your campfire not to disturb them unduly.

Once, fishing a river, my angling partner and I were entertained
by the squalling and wrangling of four or five raccoon who came to

182 THE WILD FISHERS

dinner nightly. They seemed to have a prodigious capacity for a
good gang fight, when the incentive of food was before them. Night
after night we put our flashlight on a real brawl.

On the beach fronting our camp, these raccoon would start a fight
which stirred the dry silt and sand to life as they rolled and tumbled,
snapping viciously at each other. But when the whirlwind of the
battle brought them into the water, as it often did, they disengaged,
shook the water from their sleek grey coats, and sedately walked
back toward our offering of scraps. This cooling out in the clear
waters of our trout stream, however, had no permanent salutary
effect on their collective tempers. Within minutes after returning
from the river another stormy session would develop down to the
last morsel of food.

The beaver, while not strictly a wild fisher in that he is a vege-
tarian, is often encountered along trout streams, either in person or
by evidence of his engineering projects. He builds beautiful dams.
His lodge, too, is an engineering contrivance which has direct sur-
vival value. After flooding a section of low-lying ground by damming
a creek, he constructs lodges well out from the bank, the water
excellent protection from the bay lynx, cougar, coyote, and other
predators who often try for a young, luscious beaver for a wilderness
meal.

Evidence of beaver activity is so well known to the average
angler that there is little point in touching upon it here. But some
facets of beaver behavior is much less well known. They are almost
as playful as otter rolling, wrestling, and frolicking in the water
and on their dams. Watching them by the hour, however, I have yet
to see one moment when some two or three beaver weren't on guard,
ready to slap the water with a resounding smack of their broad tails
at the first intimation of danger.

The best time to watch beaver going about the business of their
colony is in late evening. Move into some vantage point, then remain
perfectly still. They usually start their activity before dark, and you
will have a ringside seat. But you must be quietly cautious.

Watching a beaver dam late one June evening, after a day's fish-
ing on their stream, I became interested in a flight of caddis flies over
the backed-up water behind the impoundment. These aquatics were

THE WILD FISHERS 133

teasing the entire surface, and the dimpled water showed the re-
sponse of several beautiful rainbows. Next morning, I returned and
took four trout, the largest this particular stream ever produced for
me. I have had repeats on this so often that I never pass up any
impounded waters around a beaver colony. All such waters merit
your careful attention, even if you disregard the fascinating engineer
who makes such fishing possible.

Living in the same stream and lakes, often sharing the same
water backed up by a beaver dam, you find the muskrat. Like his
larger cousin, the beaver, he is almost strictly vegetarian. But he is
part and parcel of the streams and lakes we fish, even though he
might not be classified as strictly a wild fisher. He has the same
propensity for lodge building as a beaver. But he is no builder of
dams, preferring to make his lodge in some suitable shallow. Where
this isn't feasible, he makes a burrow in a bank, with an underwater
entrance for his comings and goings.

A muskrat is a natural food supply of mink, otter, and such. He
has in addition a beautiful soft, dark, sometimes almost black, fur
which is highly prized by trappers. He is no great shakes as a fighter
when compared with his natural predators, and he is easily caught
by thousands of farm boy trappers. But he is a family man, this
muskrat, bringing two and sometimes three litters of young into the
world each season. A litter may consist of anywhere from five to as
many as nine young. A muskrat seemingly operates on the theory
that if you can't join them, outfight them, or avoid their traps, then
outbreed them. It is his only hold on survival and a rather unique,
pleasant way of solving this pressing problem.

The web-footed track of muskrats, though much smaller, have
many characteristics of the beaver. The best identifying mark, how-
ever, when examining his tracks, is the crease mark of his tail. It
drags in the mud, as perhaps befits anyone with such large family
responsibilities.

Once, when fishing a lake, I came on a small muskrat kit crying
and alone on the bank. I took him home with me, spent weeks care-
fully feeding him milk with a medicine dropper. He prospered,
growing rapidly all during the summer. Then, when the first sough-
ing southwest storm keened through the marshes fronting my home,

184 THE WILD FISHERS

and teal and mallard pitched into the sheltering water in the lea of
the willows, that ingrate tunneled out of his pen and was gone to
join his wild kind in the swamp.

It was just as well though. I wasn't entirely happy with his con-
finement. I planned on eventually taking him back to the lake. A
wild thing, confined, is not good either for the confined, nor for
him who does the confining. Since that time, I have had innumerable
opportunities of bringing home the young of mink, otter, raccoon,
and such. But I have always had a happier thought and left them
to their own devices in the wilderness. Their place is on the lakes
and streams we fish. It took only a dark, stormy night to touch my
tame muskrat with a compulsion which couldn't be denied. I think
I understand that. Such a night to him must have been like opening
day of trout season to an angler.

Fish wilderness rivers and eventually youll meet a bear. I have
on several occasions. Best remembered was an old bear with two
very curious cubs. I fished with a partner that day, on a mountain
stream reportedly loaded with rainbows. The fishing was good. But
this bear and her cubs is the much more vivid memory, and the more
cherished, too. We rounded a bend in the trail where it touched
Camas Creek, a nice place to start fishing. But ahead of us, and
busily turning over rocks in the shallows, was the old mother bear.
Her two cubs gathered frogs, crayfish, and any luckless water lizards
she uncovered. All this I deduced later from turning over a few of
these rocks myself, and examining the sheltered underwater life.

When Hank and I came around this turn, we were within forty
feet of the old mother bear and her cubs. With her back to us and
busily engaged, she had no premonition of our presence until one
of the cubs squealed. She turned in a flash and stood looking at us,
her ruff raised, clicking her teeth, the very picture of outraged
virtue.

With a few well directed cuffs, she sent her cubs ashore and up
a small bushy hemlock tree, where they looked down in round-eyed
innocence while their mother roared back and forth, inviting us to
do something. We did. Hank and I eased back up the trail, step at a
time, putting cautious space between us and this family group. Odd
thing, but we began walking backward without either of us saying

THE WILD FISHERS 185

a word or agreeing on a plan. It seemed the most logical thing to
do, even though I had my .38 Special revolver out and in hand by
this time.

If you ever meet an old mother bear with cubs along some wilder-
ness stream, I am sure you will understand our attitude much better.
A bear with cubs is the most hair-triggered of any wild thing you
can meet, from mountain lion to bull elk.

Several precautions are essential when you do meet with this
particular wild fisher. Never, as you value your life, get between her
and her cubs. That's basic woodcraft, as any backwoodsman will tell
you. If you find one of those small cuddly cubs alone in the woods,
hands off! Touch that cub and he will give a low, whining cry which
will bring its mother on the run and she is fury incarnate.

When you meet a bear, stand still; or if you are close, move
slowly back and away from there. This last advice, when an old
mother bear is frothing at the mouth, is a very easy bit of advice
to follow.

But with the natural propensity of a female bear to take on all
comers when her cubs are seemingly threatened, all bears have a
wilderness charm and fascination about them. They are so much
a part of the wilderness, and so deeply imbedded in the folklore of
America. Bear tracks along a trout stream, even now, are a sure
proof of the fact that you have shaken the dust of civilization from
your feet and are in the great unspoiled country east, west, north,
or south.

These tracks are very distinctive. The hind foot tracks appear
somewhat like the imprint of a bare-footed man. The front track is
broader and shorter. You can make a very good representation by
folding your finger under and pressing your hand in the mud.

I nominate the bear as being one of our most fascinating wild
fishers. I have watched him fish on some of the salmon streams of
the Pacific Coast, and I have met him casually on trout streams;
always there is a pulse-tingling thrill to the encounter.

This last, however, can be said of all the wild fishers. Time spent
in actually becoming acquainted with them pays off richly in
angling dividends. It gives fishing an entirely new dimension. There

186 THE WILD FISHERS

is no such thing as a barren river, not even from the standpoint of
taking fish. But when you have the lively company of the wild
fishers, either in person or through a thorough knowledge of their
comings and goings by reading signs, then there are no dull rivers
or lakes, either.

TAKE A
BOY FISHING

Boys will fish. What they get out of angling will depend a lot on
their first few trips on a river. If angling is to be a rich experience
in their lives, then conservation, good sportsmanship, and an appre-
ciation of the outdoors must be implanted early.

Start this teaching by taking a boy (or girl) fishing. You may say,
"There is no place for a boy on those hurried trips which I manage
to finagle from the grim business of keeping a family solvent." But
there are other ways of helping a boy with his fishing, even a whole
community of boys. Ever thought of starting a casting club for them,
a fly-tying class in the local high school? Do any of these things and
eventually you will take a boy fishing and enjoy it.

Another thing what about those reels, rods, and lines which you
no longer use, even though they still have plenty of service left in
them? Of course, it is always better to outfit a beginner from
scratch, with new, carefully selected equipment. But that isn't
always possible, and I am betting that you, like myself, have yards
of line which will never see the water again plus hooks, fly rods,
casting rods, flies, and lures. Fishing items accumulate unless you
have a boy or girl in mind to whom you can pass along your surplus.

Here is the way I keep my tackle from getting out of hand. Each
time I go fishing, I place a few extra items in a special pocket of

187

188 TAKE A BOY FISHING

my fishing jacket: a fly line which still has service in it, even though
the finish isn't what it used to be; flies of which I have several
duplicates; and extra hooks, spinners, wobblers, a couple of good
tapered leaders, and a few tippets. There is a sampling of practically
all items which I have found useful. But and this should always
be remembered no item which has proved to be a failure finds its
way into this pocket, to be palmed off on some boy or girl in need
of good fish-taking equipment.

During a day's fishing on practically any water, or for any kind
of fish, I have something suitable and always I find a boy or girl in
need of just the item I have. Not only that, but they sop up advice
like a sponge!

This entire angling setup is strange to them. They want to catch
fish, and wanting can be extremely important to them much more
so than it is to an experienced angler who has found a deep love of
streams tempering his desire to take a creel of fish. By the time I
meet a youngster on a stream I usually have a fair idea of what lure
or fly pattern is going to produce, as well as the best method of
presentation.

We talk it over, the boy or girl that I meet, and discuss the
possibilities of the water. It would never do to talk down to these
beginning anglers; the talk must be from fisherman to fisherman.
That in itself is a morale builder for these beginners. They unburden
themselves to anyone taking an interest in their fishing.

When I examine their tackle, I often find it is not right for either
the fish or the water. Beginners usually use too-heavy leaders, too-
heavy lines and rods. Their tackle is predicated on catching a real
old story-book heavyweight fish, and they go prepared to handle
him. But that eventuality seldom occurs until they have learned to
use much lighter tackle, properly tapered leaders, and more delicate
flies.

An experienced angler can make a valuable contribution to the
success of a boy's first fishing effort. Set him up with a properly
tapered leader and a selection of wet flies which have proved to be
producers. You don't need many flies for this; a half dozen in about
three patterns is much better than too many for a beginner. A Royal

TAKE A BOY FISHING 189

Coachman Bucktail is always good. So is a Grey Hackle Yellow and
a Light Cahill.

A large number of fly rods will handle a D level line, an HDH
double taper, or a HCF torpedo head. By the same token, most
anglers have lines of this nature, and it cannot be put to better use
than in outfitting a boy for his first fly fishing.

Always remember that youngsters are eager to learn. Some of
the many fine points of fishing which you take for granted will
come as revelations to them. Show them the spots where you expect
to take fish and tell them the reason fish take up such positions.
And that, of course, is going to take you into a discussion of avail-
able fish feed. Point out the stream life on the bottom of quiet pools
and on the riffles. Retrieve a few nymphs and talk over the life cycle
of these aquatics with them. But always leave a bit unsaid, too.

I remember one such incident on Oregon's fabulous Rogue River,
when I came onto a lad trying to use his first fly rod. He was having
heavy going of it. His backcast was going low, tipping rocks on the
bar behind him. He was putting too much power in his forward
cast, and was continuing this power too long. So his line was sizzling
out in a tight loop with the leader often fouling on it. It wouldn't
have done to tell him all that was wrong with his casting. So I
remarked about the tricky crosswind playing hob with one's cast-
ing. Then we talked fishing.

He and I decided that, due to the vicious crosswind, we just
simply had to confine our casting to twenty feet or so. Might be a
good policy, too, if we kept our backcast plenty high. We also
decided that to reach those out-of-the-way spots we would have
to do some mighty careful wading. The upshot of all this was that,
after the lad had taken one of my nine-foot tapered leaders and a
Dark Cahill fly, he latched onto a twelve-inch rainbow. No tackle
buster that, but you should have seen his face light up.

At noon he shared my lunch, and we talked trout. We prowled
around the riffles, examining trout food. We talked about hatches.
I pretended I didn't know some of the may fly nymphs he brought
to me for identification, and suggested that he preserve them by dry-
ing. Then, when vacation was over, he could get a book on aquatic

190 TAKE A BOY FISHING

insects and make his own identification. So tie carefully put them
into a hook container for future study and classification.

His dad, he told me, had hired a boat and guide to go up river
for a day's fishing, leaving him to fish the water close to the fishing
lodge where they were staying. After a few not-too-kind thoughts
ahout this deal of leaving him at the lodge where he wouldn't be
in the way, I invited him to go fishing with me for the evening. We
fished a tributary of the Rogue, with a good hatch of may flies over
the water. At dusk, when we quit the river, he had eight nice trout,
one of which would go a full sixteen inches.

I took only three trout during the evening. My time was enjoy-
ably spent at the lad's elbow, talking about the way of a trout with
a dry fly. At dark I drove him back to the fishing lodge, a tired but
happy angler. He had topped his dad, both in the number of trout
taken and in size. I took a lot of satisfaction in that.

I don't remember a day's angling richer in rewards for me than
this day I spent with a lad whose dad thought he would be in the
way on a fishing trip! A boy or girl is never in the way on a fishing
trip. What gets in the way on occasion is the selfishness of adult
anglers who haven't time to pass along a bit of fishing equipment,
and to lend a helping hand when it is needed.

After this lad finished his vacation, I received a long letter from
him, giving me the lowdown on those may fly nymphs about which
I had pretended uncertainty. Enclosed in the letter were two sprawl-
ing nymph fly patterns, and two passable Brown Bi-Visibles. His
casting was improving from his sessions on his front lawn with his
fly rod. Next year he was going to take one of those big summer-run
steelhead.

From here on out he can make his own way. But at the time I
found him trying to fish on the Rogue he needed counsel and equip-
ment, somebody to make his problems his own for a few hours.
That should have been his father, of course.

I am betting that in the years to come when this lad meets an-
other beginner on a stream, he will remember and will share his
equipment and know-how with some other boy or girl.

GOOD FISHING
BEGINS AT HOME

Fish to improve fishing! That sounds strange, but it is true. Sev-
eral states have had to take off all bag limits to improve fishing in
certain problem waters. Ichthyologists are finding that too little
fishing is just as harmful as too much. Fish overrun their natural
food supply unless their numbers are kept under control by heavy
angling. When this occurs they become stunted, with little attrac-
tion for anglers.

Bass and other spiny-rayed fish are especially prone to outpro-
duce anglers in warm, shallow lakes and ponds which have an
abundant initial supply of food. These waters, if they have been
stocked recently, flare into production which makes fishing out of
this world. But if angling pressure is not constant and heavy, the
fish soon outrun their food supply.

A few years ago, on water within a quarter mile of where this
is written, I could sit on the bank of a local river any summer eve-
ning and catch twenty bullhead within two hours. These were good
husky catfish, weighing from a pound and a half to two pounds.
There was no limit on the amount that could have been taken,
except the twenty-fish limit set by state game regulations. It was a
nice river on which to spend an evening, and I spent many warm
summer evenings there, taking my quota of bullhead.

191

192 GOOD FISHING BEGINS AT HOME

Then something happened to this fishing. There were fewer and
fewer two-pound catfish taken. Instead, one caught eight- and nine-
inch bullhead; a half pounder was tops. The gusto and abandon
with which they used to bite was completely lacking. Casual obser-
vation would convince anyone, as I was convinced, that there were
many less fish; and these were smaller, immature fish. Actually,
though, there were many more. They had reached a place in their
food cycle where they had overrun the supply. And while they were
hungry and stunted, they were lethargic and less prone to forage
actively.

The population in this section doubled during the past decade,
and so did the number of fishermen. Eventually, fishing pressure
reduced the number of catfish in this river, bringing them within
speaking distance of their food supply. With this increased fishing
pressure, the size of the fish caught also increased. Once again, I can
take two-pound bullheads from this river. It is fun to fish there now.

Only recently I talked with game commission personnel on the
problems of sport fishing. They told me that a majority of inquiries
from anglers were about where to find good trout fishing. In the
meantime, many lakes and rivers in the state have had to be thrown
open to commercial netting to keep the bass and other spiny-rayed
fish in balance with their food supply. It is an odd angling situation:
fishermen looking for suitable fishing waters, and many problem
waters suffering from a lack of anglers.

This situation is caused to a great extent by the overemphasis
which sporting magazines give to trout fishing. Maybe I have a less
socially acceptable angling attitude, but to me black bass, crappie,
yellow perch, or bullhead catfish offer plenty of thrilling fishing if
you go after them with light tackle. Most of these fish are angled
for in a misdirected way. They deserve much more consideration
than they get. With half the attention one gives to trout fishing,
they respond beautifully. And there is always the thought of their
unlimited abundance to increase your pleasure.

I am certainly not unmindful of the downright angling pleasure
of fishing a trout stream when there is a hatch over the water. Such
fishing needs to be preserved, and made to mean something special.
In order to do this we must fish more of those problem waters

GOOD FISHING BEGINS AT HOME 193

where the spiny-rayed fish are so numerous. Trout fishing pressure
will be eased and angling improved, and at the same time we will
be doing our bit to keep these problem waters under control

Try sometime fishing for spiny-rayed fish with your light, 3-ounce
trout rod. You will be surprised at the fighting quality of these fish,
at the wonderful angling which you have been missing. Another
good method of fishing for them is with a light spinning outfit,
which is also very good to use for bullhead.

How do you go about finding water which is underfished? I am
betting that such waters are within driving distance of your home,
regardless of where you live. To find them, contact your state game
commission. Ask them about lakes and ponds which they feel are
not subject to enough fishing pressure. Inquire about waters on
which they have had to increase bag limits, or do away with them
entirely. These waters are much nearer to you than you think.

One such lake, a small body of water gleaming like a jewel
through a setting of willows, attracted my attention time after time
as I drove by on my way to a nearby overfished trout stream. Eve-
nings, when I returned, there would be a golden haze through the
willows as the sun touched the waters of this small lake. One day I
walked down through the willows to the edge of the water, It
looked beautiful. Bass water, I thought.

I dropped my fly just at the edge of a bed of sago pond weed.
There was a terrific explosion of brown water as a bass took my fly
from the surface, coming clear of the water in a gill-shaking rattle.
From the time I got the strike until I lost him, I never caught up
with his efforts. I gave line just as he turned toward me after a
tackle-breaking surge. I took line as he was turning away. I stood
there, with the water lapping at the top of my boots, never sure
just how it happened, looking at my slack line and trailing leader,
the still agitated water a testament to a battle fought and lost.

But there were other bass there, plenty of others. Here was a fish
population which, within a very few seasons, would overrun its food
supply unless more fishing pressure was applied to this lovely piece
of water. In the interest of my own fishing, I induced other local
anglers to give these bass a try with their fly rods. In consequence
of my glowing reports, this water was fished much more heavily over

194 GOOD FISHING BEGINS AT HOME

the seasons. And it is still producing fine catches of heavy, fighting
bass. It will continue to produce, too, just as long as it is heavily
fished.

This lake is typical of many such waters close to home, offering
wonderful sport. When some angler complains about overcrowded
rivers, of barren waters, he is not thinking of the bass and panfish.
They are getting out of hand on many waters, and need more fishing
to keep them in balance with their food supply. If you have never
angled for them, I envy you your experience when you discover
what wonderful fishing they are.

INDEX

Active periods, on lakes or streams, 152

Angler's clip, 111
Angleworms, raising of, 149-51
Ants, 34, 53, 55, 154

red, 34

wood, 33-34
Aquatic insects, 29-32, 46

Backpacking, 113-16
Bags

fish, 111

sleeping, 114
Bait

catfish, 146-47

changing, in worm fishing, 14
Bass

fly rodding, 121-29

plugging for, 117-20, 121
Bass bugging, 12527
Bass lakes, 12122
Bears, 113-14, 184-85
Beaver, 182-83
Bedding, 114
Bees, 34, 37-38
Beginners, 18790
Birds, 172-75
Black flies, 35
Bluegills, 162

Boots, patching materials for, 11O
Boys, introducing, to fishing, 187-9O
Bream, 162
Bugs, bass, 125-27
Bullheads, 146-48, 191-92, 193

Caddis flies, 31, 32
larvae, 5, 18, 31

Casting

distance, 71-72, 74

downstream, 4CMtl

spin, 90
Casts

curve, 6970
inside, 69, 70
outside, 69-70

"Lazy S," 70-71

long, 71-72, 74

roll, 72

Catfishing, 144^8, 191-92
Cement, for repairing rods, 110
Coffin flies, 30
Crane flies, 53, 55
Crappies, 162, 192
Creels, 111
Curve casts; see Casts
Custom fly rods, 79-^83

Deer flies, 34, 35
Distance casting, 7172
Double-taper fly lines, 74-76
Downstream casting, 4O 41
Drag, in worm fishing, 13
Dragon flies, 122
"Drift samples," 166
Dry fly fishing, 6, 10, 4O-45

for bass, 124

for steelheads, 130^-35

mid-season, 158-61

water for, 58
Duns, 30

Eels, lamprey, 179-80
Equipment

camping, 11316

cooking, 11516

fishing, diversity of, 108-12

195

196 INDEX

Fish bags, 111
Fishing

bass, with fly rods, 122-29

dry fly, 6, 10, 40-45
for bass, 124
for steelheads, 130-35
mid-season, 158-61
water for, 58

early spring, 165-67

fall, 162-64

nymph fly, 5, 6, 8, 10, 16-23
early spring, 166-67
for bass, 123-24

wet fly, 6, 8, 10, 24-28

wilderness, 113-16

worm, 6, 10, 11-17
Fishing jackets, 111
Flickers, 174
Flies

dry, 6, 10, 40-45
for bass fishing, 126-29

nymph, 5, 6, 8, 10, 16, 18-23

panfishing, 163-64

patterns; see Patterns, fly

streamer, 5-6, 10, 46-50, 163

wet, 6, 8, 10, 24-28

for bass fishing, 127
Fly lines, 74-78

classification of, 74, 77

double-taper, 74-76

duplicate, 110

floating, 77-78

level, 74

material in, quality of, 78

sinking, 77

torpedo-head, 74, 76
Fly rod kits, 84-87
Fly rods

bass fishing with, 122-29

casts; see Casts

custom, 79-83

nymph fishing, 22-23

panfishing, 162

versatility of, 109

worm fishing, 11

Gnats, 35

Grasshoppers, 34, 35-37
Green drakes, 30
Grosbeaks, 172, 173
Grouse, ruffed, 173

Gun, as wilderness fishing requirement,
113-14

Hammocks, 114

Hatches, 5, 18, 19, 154, 156, 176

imago, 29

may fly, 29-30

streamer flies and, 48-49

sub-imago, 29
Hawks, 172
Hooks, 93-97

designations for, 95-96

nymph fly fishing, 22

streamer fly fishing, 49

worm fishing, 12, 15, 16
Hornets, 38
Hummingbirds, 174-75

Inactive periods, on lakes and streams,

152-54
Insects; see Aquatic insects; Nocturnal

insects; Terrestrial insects
Inside curve cast, 69, 70

Jackets, fishing, 111

Kits

fly rod, 84-87
snake bite, 110

Lakes, bass, 121-22
Lamprey eels, 179-80
Land moths, 34
Landing nets, 111
"Lazy S" cast, 70-71
Leaders, 98-103

bass plugging, 120

color of, 100

double-tapered, 99

fly patterns anct 32

homemade, 102-3

materials for, 102

nymphing and, 20

worm fishing and, 11-12
Lines; see also Fly lines

duplicate, 110-11

for spin fishing, 92

Maps, making, 168-71

Matching, 3-10, 16, 21, 24, 25, 32, 34,

35, 157, 160

night, for "off* days, 51-56
May flies, 19, 29-31, 32, 41-43, 122, 154,

176

Midges, 32, 166
Mink, 177-78, 183, 184

INDEX

197

Minnows, 48, 47-48, 49, 163
Mosquito netting, 114
Moths, 34, 53
Muskrats, 183-84

Natural presentation, 3, 8, 16, 64, 68

nymph fishing and, 21

wet fly fishing and, 26

worm fishing and, 16
Nets, landing, 111

Night matching, for "off" days, 51-56
Nocturnal insects, 53-56
Notebook, fisherman's, 168-71
Nymph fly fishing, 5, 6, 8, 10, 16, 18-23

bass and, 123-24

dressing the line and leader for, 20-21

early spring, 166-67

fly rod, 22-23

hooks for, 22

leaders for, 20

patterns, 22, 31
tying, 21-22

presentation and, 21

season for, 18-20
Nymphs, 166

defined, 18

may fly, 30-31

Otter, 178-80, 183, 184
Ouzel, water, 173-74
Outside curve cast, 69-70

Pace

in wet fly fishing, 24

stream, change in, 9
Panfish, 162-64

Patching materials, for boots, 110
Patterns, fly

bee, 37-38

deer fly, 35

grasshopper, 36

leaders and, 32

nymph fishing, 22, 31

streamer fly, 47, 49

water and, 62-67

wet fly, 27

Perch, yellow, 162, 192
Plugging for bass, 117-20, 121
Presentation; see Natural presentation
Provisions, camping, list of, 115

Raccoons, 180-82, 184
Reading, water, 57-61, 157

Reels, spinning, 91

Robins, 172, 173

Rods; see Fly rods; Spinning rods

Roll cast, 72

Scent slick, 13-14, 147

Seasons, changing techniques with, 6-9,

122, 155^57
Sedges, 31
Shad flies, 117, 118
Sinkers, 104-7

method of attaching, 105-6

split-shot, 104

weight of, 104-^5

wrap-around, 105
Sinking fly line, 77
Sleeping bags, 114
Snake bite kits, 110
Spinners, 30

for bass fishing, 128
Spinning, 88-92
Spinning lines, 111
Spinning reels, 91
Spinning rods, 91
Steelheads

taking, on dry flies, 130^-35

winter, fishing for, 136-43
Stone flies, 52
Streamer flies, 5-6, 10, 46-50, 163

for bass fishing, 128-29

hooks for, 49

Streams, winter trout, 165-67
Surface flies, 40-45
Swallows, cliff, 172

"Tailing trout," 19

Terminal rigs, 104-7

Terrestrial insects, 3&-39, 46, 53, 153,
156, 160

Tomtits, 174

Torpedo-head fly lines, 74, 76

Trout

winter feeding habits, 165-67
winter survival statistics, 167

Tying, nymph patterns, 21-22

Vests, game-fishing, 11

Water

dry fly fishing, 58

fly patterns and, 62-67

reading, 57-61, 157

198 INDEX

Water ouzel, 173-74 Worm fishing, 6, 10, 11-17, 149

Wet fly fishing, 6, 8, 10, 24-28 drag in, 13

for bass, 127 factors in, 13

pace and, 24 fly rod used in, 11

pattern, factors affecting, 25 hooks for, 12, 15, 16

patterns for, 27 leaders and, 11-12

presentation and, 26 presentation and, 16

water for, 59 streams for, 13

Wilderness fishing, 113-16 Worms, raising of, 149-51

Winter steelheads, fishing for, 136-43

Wood ants, 33-34 Yellow jackets, 37-38

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