There are two ways of taking trout--one at the top of the water, and the
other beneath it. The latter is commonly known as bait-fishing, while
the former is called fly-fishing.
Fly-fishing is undoubtedly the greater sport, and requires more delicacy
and skill of handling than the other; but it is also much more expensive
by reason of the cost of the rod, the line, the flies, and the various
small matters that a fly-fisher always wants. Then, again, it happens
that there are days when a trout will not rise at a fly, but when if you
whisk a ripe red angle-worm or a fat grasshopper under his nose he will
promptly take in either; and after such remonstrance as it may be in him
to offer, he will get into your basket, or find himself strung on your
willow twig. There are also streams wherein the water is at times thick
and murky, and where the fish lurk about the bottom of the deep holes
and eddies, and can not see the fly when it is thrown. In such places
the bait has to be brought very close to their notice, and it must also
be fresh, or frequently they will have none of it.
A fly rod for trout should be about fourteen feet long, seven ounces or
thereabouts in weight, and should be fitted with a good reel that will
let the light line, which is of silk or of linen fibre, run out freely,
and then wind it again as quickly. Such a rod may cost a good deal of
money--seventy-five dollars, for instance, if you prefer a split bamboo
rod of a certain maker's work. There are fly rods which you can bend
until you take the tip and butt into one hand, but which will fly out
straight again on being released. A rod of this sort is a very pretty
affair, but quite as many trout are likely to be taken with a much
cheaper one.
In the days, however, when I fished more than, I am sorry to say, I do
now, I had a rod which was not worth much more than fifty cents, the
line and lead, sink and hook, included; and yet with that rod I have
outdone many a fisherman who possessed the most expensive kind of an
outfit. I thought that had I had their costly outfits, their books of
flies for all seasons, weathers, and hours, their taper rods, their silk
lines and whirring reels, their prodigal lengths of gut, their trim
baskets, and their luxury of small fixings, I should have cleaned out
our river at will. But I learned later that in trout-fishing a vast deal
more depends upon the fisherman than upon any apparatus he may be
supplied with.
[Illustration]
To begin with, any flexible light rod will do. You should have a reel,
so that you may be able to fish at varying distances from where you
stand, and also in order that if you do strike a large fish, he may not
get away from you by simply starting off suddenly and snapping off your
line or tearing out the hook. You should have about thirty yards of
line. Then you want, if you mean to fish with the fly, a few gut
casting-lines and some flies; or if you intend bait-fishing, some hooks,
and a sinker heavy enough to keep your bait from being swept along too
fast by the current.
If you can, provide yourself with a fish basket. It will keep your fish
from being dried up by the sun, and visited by the flies, which latter
like fresh trout quite as much as you do yourself. It will also leave
you your hands free to attend to your fishing with; and if the fish bite
at all, you will need both to manage them. When you are fishing, keep
this same basket lid fastened. I remember on one occasion being very
much annoyed to see my fine trout, that I had caught all swept away by
the rushing current, when I had, with no intention thereof, sat down in
the water by reason of a slippery rock, or, out of pure anxiety, walked
into some deep hole.
[Illustration]
If you intend to use bait for your fishing, tie your sinker at the end
of your line in such a way that you can attach the loop in the gut of
your hook below it. Your hook ought to be at least a foot below your
sinker, and it ought not to vary greatly in size from the hooks shown in
the illustration on this page. You know how to get worms, just as well
as I do; only choose those that are neither small nor great, and that
are about twice the length of your hook. Such a worm looks best and most
inviting to a trout when he is properly disposed on the hook. This you
should do in the simplest way possible, putting the hook crosswise two
or three times through the worm, tucking him together on it, and being
chiefly careful that the point and barb are covered. If you can not get
worms, there is a variety of old stumps of trees that will yield you a
fat white grub that the trout esteem highly. These grubs are borers, and
an axe easily lays bare their long sawdust galleries in the decaying
timber. Failing worms and grubs, you can use grasshoppers or minnows.
For handsome as the trout is, he is a voracious fellow, and will eat all
manner of small fish, snails, frogs, and the like, being nothing short
of a cannibal, and devouring things until he can hold nothing more.
[Illustration]
Fish with your line as nearly of the length of your rod as you can, and
put your bait as far from your standpoint as is possible without losing
your ready observation and command of it. Never be too prodigal of your
line because you have plenty of it on your reel, but use only so much of
it as may be needed to put your bait where the fish lies, and keep
yourself and your rod out of his sight. The trout is bold in one way,
and timid in another. He is as brave as a lion about what he eats, and
the quantity of it, but he is as swift-flying as a shadow if he catches
a glimpse of you. Keep out of his view, and drop your line noiselessly
into the stream above the eddy in the current. It will drift quietly
down, and if the fish are there, you will know it very soon. When you
feel him bite, strike by sharply raising the tip of your rod. Do it
firmly and quickly, but with such control that if you miss him you will
not send your bait flying back over your head, among the trees, perhaps,
or into any place but where it ought to be. If you have him, and he be a
fish of any strength and weight, your sport begins. Let him run with it,
but keep your rod well up so that you can maintain a steady strain on
him. If you slacken your line, the chances are he will spit out the
hook, or shake it out of the hole it has made for itself in his jaw, and
then you are done with him. Keep a steady hand on him; bring him up
sharp and quick if he jumps out, for that is a dangerous trick, and
guide him at a favorable turn, and when you have a good head of speed on
him, to his landing-place.
[Illustration]
For fly-fishing, which is the finest after all, you want a gut
casting-line, and some more in reserve in your pocket-book or about your
hat, and an assortment of flies suited to the season. Flies are
imitations of the various insects that trout feed upon, and are of great
variety. You may learn to make them yourself with a few simple
materials, such as small feathers and bits of silk or woollen goods.
To your casting-line attach your flies as you see them in the engraving,
and then you are ready. You have at least eight feet of gut between your
end fly and your line. Fish with as much length of line as you can
easily and surely throw. Use your rod like a long delicate whip, and let
the three flies that form its taper lash settle down on the water as
lightly as thistle-down. This can not have too much care; it is the
great thing in the art of fly-fishing, and should be practiced in an
open space. When you can drop your flies, every time, on a handkerchief
fifty feet away, you can consider yourself an expert. For the rest of
it, when you see your fish rise with a swift bright flash of red and
white, and a sparkle of breaking water, strike just as before advised,
and hold him after in the spirit of firmness and coolness until you land
him and have him safe in your basket.
[Illustration]
Let your tackle be of the lightest and the strongest; don't neglect it,
for a real fisherman is as careful of his things as if they were so many
live pets; and beyond everything else, when you go a-fishing, keep a
good temper and an open eye.