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DRYFLY FISHING WAYS Story of a Contemplative Angler arid the Way of Fish Methods Followed by Sports men in American and Other Streams To the contemplative angler who practices the drvfly art almost every day upon the stream dry fly fishing furnishes its quota of thrills In fact each rise of a trout furnishes a series of emotions for which there is no name so descriptive as thrills For the sake of angling literature it is too bad that they must be felt and cannot I e described writes E 31 Gill in Rod and Gun in Canada CanadaUlster Ulster County New York is a wonderful coutnry for clear cold liquid streams witji lively speckled trout and far enough from the city that all business cares may be forgotten Having spent a fine week casting the dryfly on the surface of some of these mountain streams let us imagine we are on our way homeward We pass through the built up por ¬ tion of Wurtsboro in Sullivan County and come o a bridge before we reach Mamakating Under the bridge flows the little BasherKill celebrated as a trout stream nearly a century ago That ther should be f isli in it surrounded as it is by a Country so well built up astonishes one Two things demand the attention of the angler the coldness cf the water and the bed of the stream and in what appears to be a few minutes we are startled by tin sound of the automobile horn telling us it is tim to quit quitAs As is customary among anglers we walk along th bank of the brook eyes keenly alert for a stray trout Approaching a sharp turn in the stream below the bridge our attention is arrested by a sight that brings us to an abrupt stop The bed of the stream is almost pure white the water like Horaces celebrated snrjng of Bandusia Some twenty feet below the bend a trout lies in the center of th stream a foot below the surface eight feet above is another some two feet nearer the further bank and further up lies a third a few feet from the opposite bank bankA A dryfly alights two feet ahead of the first fish and one foot to the left The fish as far as can be observed by the angler pays no attention to the fly which slowly floats with the current It pro ¬ ceeds twelve inches A quick movement and the fish faces the floating fly and then is stationary When the lure is opposite the fish the trout seems nervous but still does not move ahead The fli is now a foot below the fish so goodbye hopes But the trout fickle being that it is has change 1 its mind down it comes takes the fly and thrn down and still further down until it reaches the not Question Had this fish hesitated to take the flj immediately because it could not understand wly two fish above had let a juicy fly go without eve i a movement to capture it thus making it an object of suspicion suspicionBut But there are two other fih to fry or rather to get ready for frying for the kiddies at home homeThe The whirling dun was dropped near the center fish cocking beautifully ahead of it and to tin left Without hesitation he seized it immediately A similar operation quickly led to the ruin of the third trout Three out all out Great work to ¬ day old man It is not always thus thusThe The manner in which these three fish were caught furnishes an excellent example of dryfly fishing as practiced in its original home England though this statement may be disputed The general way of the English purist is to cast only to a rising fish The late Mr Halford the great English apostle of the dryfly on August 26 1912 wrote to me among other tilings On the Test I fish almost exclusively to the rising fish but on the Itchen also try with dryfly fish in position The three fish above mentioned were without doubt in posi ¬ tion for feeding and came to the net at only a slight suggestion made by the angler anglerDRYFLY DRYFLY PURIST METHODS METHODSThe The dryfly purist as he is known casts his fly usually only when he sees a trout rising he stalks the fish if he sees a rise he goes within casting distance of the spot carefully places his fly so that it falls exactly where the trout hos risen or just above it that the fly may float down over the fish If he does not get a rise it is no unusual for him to try a fly of a different pat ¬ tern if he finally gives up in his attempt to catch this particular trout he looks for another rising fish but does not make another cast until he again sees a rise If no rises occur within his vision dur inn the day he does not wet his line Some of this cult carry field glasses with which they scan tnr surface of the stream These methods undoubtedly mark a high type of sportsmanship perhaps I should be somewhat tempted to say the highest type of sportsmanship if I did not have reason to believe ready indicated its exact location to the fisherman requires at least as much skill on the part of the angler as the purists method of fishing the ri rir5 = r5 only where the exact whereabouts of the fish i known It seems to me that when an angler sees a rising fish within casting distance the battle is at least half won wonAn An American with a mind capable of seeing hu ¬ morous features in almost all things and also at times not beyond the temptation of indulging in ridicule may easily see an opening for poking fun at the disappointed purist as he returns at evening without once having cast a fly during the day In fact he does nut escape ridicule in England It has been the victim of much sarcasm even from some members of the British angling fraternity C E 31 SKitcs a bright and at times sarcastic English writer says in his 3Iinor Tactics f tin light like thistledown or that I have been de ¬ ceived for a moment inti thinking that in arti ¬ ficial fly was a natural insect as it fluttered through the air to the surface of the water waterWe We will say that it is the morning of a day on which trout seem U nave no interest in feeding and ri es are few and far between on our lovely mountain stream in Ulster county As we wade upward covering every likely spot thoroughly a worried look familiar to anglers in such circum ¬ stances chases away the smiling eountenaee with which one starts out outBUTTERFLY BUTTERFLY SHOWS THE WAY WAYSome Some of tie best parts of tin stream have been gone over and still tinre is only one fish in the creel The angler is about to cast his fly on a swift run near the opposite bank when a little happening of nature arrests the npvrard movement of the rod Twenty feet above the spot where ii another moniimt his fly was about to alight a ycl ow butterfly floats down the current resembling a small catboat It is precisely in the center of the current and in a minute will be in the exact spot picked out by the angler for placing the whirling dun It is a tense moment for the angler when the butterfly approaches the dark water two feet above the turn in the stream The insect sud ¬ denly finds itself in what must seem to him to be a huge gulf if in fuct there is time for thinking as a mighty fish seizes him The artificial insect at the end of the leader goes gracefully through the air and falls softly upon the surface two feet i above the spot where the late tragedy has occurred The trout is an old hooknosed male large for this stream but sufficiently aged to have been a mon ¬ ster if its habitat had been conducive to larger growth growthProceeding Proceeding a short distance above the rim on which occurred what I may call the tragedy of the butterfly we soon came opposite the home of a trout that happened to be particularly adept Chalk Stream I knoy of no sight more gloomy than that of a golfer painfully tramping from shot to shot But perhaps the next gloomiest sight is lie angler who with perhaps but a single day at his disposal lounges hour by hour by the side of the main river waiting with such patience as hu can muster for the rise which comes not notThe The strict purist in turn has retorted to ihoe who are inclined to make of him a ridiculous fig ¬ ure by calling all who do not adopt his methods poachers It would not be fair however to the iritish angler men of the Halford type to convey an impression that illnatured criticism is common among the British sportsmen I have read much of their literature bearing on all sides of the ques ¬ tion and have found a general inclination to bo olerant of each others opinions and most courteois n their arguments Their ideas of sportsmanship are high a condition that I believe is general among dryfly anglers everywhere The fascination of the game seems to be the attraction of this method of fishing and not the heavy creel at the end of the day The purists method of angling sportsmanlike an l praiseworthy though it may be is not I think the style of dryfly fishing that would generally appeal to American anglers even though condi ¬ tions on our streams made it at all times possible It is difficult to imagine an American fly fisher ¬ man so patient that he would spend a day on the stream without casting a fly In the first place he enjoys the practice of casting whether the fish rise or not Then again abundant experience has taught out American anglers that on some of our nearby streams they may often pass an entire day without seeing a trout rise at a natural insect So the dryfly angler of this country begins casting when he reaches the stream more or less for gen ¬ eral results as the Englishman might call it but the work of an American expert is not always i bungling performance and frequently there is little hitormiss about it He generally shows a keen knowledge of the habits of the trout and wheie hey should be lying in wajt for their food His methods may differ from those of the English purist in that instead of casting at the rise he casts at those places where experience has taught him tht the trout hide live and seek their food There ii nothing more skillful to be seen on a stream than the casting of a dryfly expert It is seldom ex ¬ cept when watching them that I have seen flies tt travelling on reverse gear He could go down ¬ stream tail first at a gait that almost exceeded the speed limit When he changed gears and made a quick getaway on high his rapidity baffled the luman eye He lived no doubt sumptuously as ic was of a size to dispute his position with almost any competitor His home was on the further side of the stream which was now so low that most of the bed was above water His feeding ground was a swift run some three feet wide two feet deep and a matter of eight feet long At the lower end of the run was a natural dam a wide flat rock over which the water here very shallow tumbled actively In fact the water in the entire run travelled with a speed calculated to furnish suffi ¬ cient aeration for any fish The fly cast imme ¬ diately upon its fall the boss of the run inspected it With its nose almost touching the fly going rapidly downstream the trout kept its position under the fly running on its reverse gear for some six feet when it came within an inch of going over the little waterfall below the rocky dam Then a flash tipstream too swift for the eye to follow Going downstream this fish seemed to disdain to turn around and use a forward motion A second time he repeated this operation in its entirety again an attempt at repetition but witli a disastrous ending As he seemed about to go over the fall he took the fly and was hauled down the stream willynilly willynillyIt It is thus that dryfly angling beguiles one though fish are not rising in numbers Who would exchange it for tamer work even for the well filled creel creelA A few of the happenings of nature that thrill oisa in hand have been as he goes upstream flyrod mentioned but not all has been told How almut the big still pool above at the side of the meadow field with bank on one side at least five feet high without a bush to hide the angler as the bright sun beats down on his back while oil the other bank is a mass of aiders impenetrable overhanging the stream for many feet To talk about this pool would be to tell a story of many disappointing hours with an everlonging desire on the part of the writer to meet an angler who could demon ¬ strate a method of fishing it successfully in these bright sunshiny conditions Incidentally the pool is so deep and large that it practically has no cur ¬ rent and so the dryfly when cast remains life ¬ less on the surface Bat the triumph one day when to the first fly cast rushed a fifteeninch fish from beneath the banks taking the fly when fully eight feet away from his hiding place And the angler felt that he must have been in full sight of the fisli when he cast the fly though on his hands and knees kneesAMERICAN AMERICAN PERSISTENCY IN FISHING FISHINGWhile While in England where many purists cast only at riiilng trout not more than two or three casts are usually niade at any one fish yet generally the American dryfly angler has adopted entirely dif ¬ ferent rules Some of our experts when they see a spot where ihey feel sure that a good trout may be feeding cast in the same place over and over again There are wellauthenticated cases where a trout has apparently paid no attention to a dryfly until twenty or thirty casts have been made and then has come for it with a rush rushThough Though I know that this doctrine isdiametrically opposed to the theories of some English experts who have practiced the art of dryfly fishing on the English chalk streams for thirty or forty years or even more yet at the present time it would be impossible tt convince many American anglers that it is not advisable on our streams to cast over promising water until one is well satisfied that the trout supposed to be there is beyond hope of being lured to the surface at that particular tiine One if my acquaintances who had been a successful djyfly fisherman for more than a quarter of a century caught his first large trout with the dry fly after n day of discouragement on the thirty aixth cast all tliu casts being maUa at uue spot in the pool and he met with this first success only after having been compelled by Mr LaBranebe who was standing by his tide to cast over this trout until he cot it itIn In the writers makeup there may be something akin to obstinacy that often makes him linger lone before a particularly alluring stretch of water though the lookedfor rises come not or the com ¬ pelling force may be a very persistent kind of hope ¬ fulness or an enlarged optimism that exhibits it ¬ self in a marked degtve when he Is casting a fly in which he thoroughly believes Sometimes the resulting persistence Is rewarded as in the follow ¬ ing case caseOn On the Willowemoc one day I came to a most enticing little run the deep water being only about two or three feet wide and four or five feet deep flowing swiftly but smoothly along the edge of an elongated brush heap close to the bank Being in a persistent and optimistic mood and believing tltat there must be a good trout in such a delightful stretch of water I determined to remain there un ¬ til the fish had been brought around to my way of thinking For half an hour I floated fly after fly vcr its supposed feeding place resting the water from time to time and then sat down to think it over deciding after a few more casts to go on up ¬ stream In what I had decided would be the final endeavor probably from fifteen to twenty casts had been made I was rewarded by the rise of a truiit of just about the size I had imagined must bo lurking in such a splendid run Mr II G Mc ¬ Clelland the author of a bright little English work on artificial flies advances the theory that flies may be cast and recast so as to create the idea that flies of this sort are passing over the fish in large numbers While the author thoroughly be ¬ lieves in the idea of floating a fly many times over a spot whore the angler is convinced that a good trout lies yet it should be remembered that the ut inostdegiyeof skill must be shown to make every fast so perfect that not even twenty or thirty casts at the same spot will sirouse the suspicions of the cunning trout It is Jnot only entirelyproper but advisable for tlii Vmeriian urglec to fish the stream instead of f hing the rises the proposition may be advanced roufidently that the dryfly is almost as tempting iucltiring trout from more or less swift rough wal r a it is in taking them from pools All who have been on trout streams can remember many places wliire there sire barriers formed by a row or group of rocks in the center of the streams tle tops of some of them rising above the surface others entirely covered Tlie swift water conies rushing down upon one of these barriers over the rocks between them and around them Above and below the rocks arc splendid lurking places for f ceding fish We approach one of these groups carefully from downstream and cast our fly at one side of the rocks and below them allowing it to float down as far as advisable before making another cast One cast follows another across the stream until we have covered all the good water lx low the rocks Whether successful or not in taking a fisli from this water we now begin cast iiiK about two or three feet above the rocks first to the left of them then directly above them and then to the right of them letting our fly float down pasttin rocks before lifting it from the water endeavoring to tempt any trout that may IH watching for food from any of these strongholds strongholdsSWIFT SWIFT WATER FOE RAINBOWS RAINBOWSNow Now a short d is buice altoyc these rocks there is apiivtfb of very swift water more or less rough Weknotr that at certain times such water is the vleiight if the wetfly angler but how about the dryfly man Let us wait and sec We are still near the right bank of the stream the left as we loot upstream and so we first let our fly drop on this swift water near the bank to our left Bing A fine rainbow trout rose at the first cast but we missed it either because we failed to see the quick flash of the fish under water or because we did not strike quickly enough But the dryfy what became of it When it touched the surface it did its best to play its dignified part of a dry fly it skipped along over the turbulent stream for t moment but the water was Urn rough and strong fc c it to keep afloat it was sucked under and therefore became the wetfly that we have been accustomed to use Xot exactly the same j er hnps Tor this dryfly though not wet or sunken still retains its character as an imitation of a nat ¬ ural insect Having had some success with our very first cast in swift water we will continue to fish very inch of these rapids letting the fly go where it listeth playing the part of the wot fly or the dryfly but always resembling the living insect which it so closely imitates imitatesIt It is somewhat astonishing at times to see ovei vha through water a dryfly can float successfully The inequalities of the stream of course depend upon the roughness of the bottom Sometimes the water rushes down with its surface broken into what appears to lie small waves more or less regu ¬ lar in shape It is a pretty sight to watch a dry fly coming down over such water apparently al ¬ most skipping from wave to wave and the action of tin fly at this time seems to be tremendouslj enticing to any fisli that may sec it itIf If the angler uses his powers of observation hr will notice that in almost all stretches of roush waieTj liowever swift and turbulent there areIittie smooth spots that might be properly called glassy glides Cast your fly at the tup of one of tlice glides and it will float perfectly until it is scizeil by a trout or reaches the turbulent water Willie the fly will of fen float successfully oyr n rough surface yet if it is sucked under the angler is certainly in no worse position than tli user of the sunken fly under his Iwnt conditions1 After having been through these swift waters tht fly may have a bedraggled appearance and look liku anything but the natty insect with wings erect that it was when first taken from the fly box The angler should take an old handkerchief or rag and squeeze tlie fly in its folds to get out some of the water that it has absorbed and then putting it close to his mouth blow into its feather and hackles This will restore to UK hackles their old fluffy appearance Next he should straighten out the wings and coax them into shape with tiife fingers finally oiling the fly again when approaci ing smooth water waterOne One of the lieautics of fishing the rough stretches is the near approach to the fish that may be made by the careful angler and the resulting advantages and possibilities of close fishing
