TROUT FLIES
"To make several flies
For the several skies.
That shall kill in despite of all weathers."
CHARLES COTTON.
=Weight of Flies.=--"Flies do not soon get tired; ... they are light;
the wind carries them. An ounce of flies was once weighed, and
afterwards counted; and it was found to comprise no less than six
thousand two hundred and sixty-eight."--Victor Hugo, _The Toilers of
the Sea_.
=The Dry-Fly.=--"Upon the curling _surface_ let it glide, with natural
motion from thy hand supplied."--Unknown Author. The italics in the
word surface are ours. The dry artificial fly must swim on the
surface, must fly upstream, must have no companion fly, must keep dry
by sailing in the air between actual casts, and must attract the fish
by minutely mimicking the living fly both in the air and on (not in)
the water.
=Vegetable Flies.=--Bearded seed of the wild oat and a silvery willow
leaf have been used successfully as artificial flies for brook trout
and black bass.
=To Carry Flies.=--Do not use your large fly-book when wading. Put a
half dozen seasonable patterns in your hatband, and a dozen more in a
little book that will not bulge your pocket.
=Variety in Flies.=--You can never carry too many trout flies on your
trip. Fill your fly-book and stick them all over the crown of your
hat. Trout do not like the same fly at all times any more than you are
fond of feeding on one sort of meat.
=Clumsy Flies.=--Most trout flies are too large, and they frighten
more trout than they attract.
=A New Fly.=--" ... an altogether original fly, unheard of, startling,
will often do great execution in an overfished pool."--Henry van Dyke.
=The Floating Fly.=--"The floating fly seemed to have the effect of
arousing the trout to action at once. During the week I estimate that
there was an average of ten rises to the dry-fly to every one to the
same fly wet."--Emlyn M. Gill.
=Fishing the Dry-Fly.=--"The dry-fly is clearly out of place on the
wet-fly water as the wet-fly is on the dry-fly stream. After all, it
is only in the style of deceiving and hooking fish that dry-fly and
wet-fly Anglers ... assuming both to be good sportsmen ... can much
differ. In nearly all other fly-fishing matters they must naturally be
at one. It has already been said that the dry-fly is quite out of
place in many trout streams. The dry-fly streams, though they have
increased of late years, are still and ever must be in a decided
minority. The dry-fly Angler is not, as a rule, a very early riser. He
can do nothing without natural flies, and in my experience there are
very few duns or other water-flies out till nine or even ten o'clock
in the morning."--A. B. Dewar, _The Book of the Dry-Fly_.
=American Dry-Flies.=--"Whirling Dun, Wickham's Fancy, Pale Evening
Dun, Jenny Spinner, (Hackle Fly), Willow Fly (Hackle Fly), Orange Fish
Hawk (Hackle Fly), Olive Dun, Soldier Palmer (Hackle Fly). Silver
Sedge, Red Spinner, White Miller, Coachman. Black Gnat."--Emlyn M.
Gill, _Practical Dry-Fly Fishing_.
=Brazilian Flies.=--Brazilian flies, costing seven dollars a ton, are
used to feed fishes in England.
=Fresh Flies.=--"When trout are taking the fly on the surface, and are
not simply feeding on the larvae as they swim upward, a brand new fly
is more likely to catch a fish than one which has been a great deal
used. I always use May-flies dressed on eyed hooks, have a goodly
supply, and when one gets so wet as to necessitate a considerable
amount of labor in the drying of it, off it comes, and is stuck in my
cap to dry at its leisure. Of course it is rather wasting to the
cast--this frequent changing flies--and no little trouble to those
whose fingers are all thumbs, and whose eyesight is becoming dim, but
it is far less trouble to change the fly than to dry it when
thoroughly soaked."--_London Fishing Gazette._
=Rocky Mountain Trout Flies.=--First, Royal Coachman; second, Gray
Hackle with yellow body. Then: Black Gnat, Ginger Quill, Cowdung,
Blue Quill. Grizzly King, Shad Fly, and Stone Fly. Hooks, No. 6 to 14.
=Early Season Flies.=--Dark Stone, Codun, Alder. Bowman, Black May,
Beauty, Ben Bent, Blue Bottle. Hare's Ear.
=All-Season Flies.=--Alder, Gray Palmer, Green Palmer, Ginger Palmer,
March Brown, Reuben Wood. Professor, White Miller, Coachman, Royal
Coachman. Dark Coachman, Codun, Scarlet Ibis, Brown Palmer. Red
Palmer, Grizzly King, Queen of the Water, King of the Water, Brown
Hen, Black Gnat. Early in the season use hooks No. 6 to 8; later, No.
8 to 12. Use the small patterns on streams, and the large patterns on
lakes and rough waters; and, as I have repeatedly suggested, when the
day is bright and where the water is clear, use the small flies of
plain colors; on dark days and in the evening, use the large bright
flies.
=Dyed-Feather Flies.=--"Some Anglers say no dyed feathers should be
used in tying flies, that they fade to a damaging extent. We have
always found dyed feathers practicable."--_London Rod and Gun._
=The Brown Hackle.=--"Fasten red (crimson red) wool round a hook, and
fit into the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's
wattles."--AElian, third century, A.D. "Out of the thousands of trout
that I have caught, it is safe to say that over 70 per cent. were
taken with the Brown Hackle."--C. T. Ramsey. Two hundred Anglers,
representing all parts of the United States, contributed fly-fishing
chapters to _Favorite Flies_. Mary Orvis Marbury's wonderful volume
on artificial flies and fly-fishing, and 130 of them declared the
Brown Hackle their favorite pattern. "I had supposed that the Red
Hackle was an imitation of the small red caterpillar, but the veteran
Nessmuk affirms that it resembles nothing below or above. It is his
favorite bug, and that settles the question."--H. C. Wilcox, _Favorite
Flies_.