Trout Fly Fishing

There is probably no subject associated with outdoor sport more thoroughly and exhaustively written about as Fly-fishing. Fly-fishing for speckled trout always, and deservedly, takes the lead.

Bass fishing usually comes next, though some writers give second place to the lake trout, salmon trout or land-locked salmon. Scarcely behind is the small-mouthed bass and is certainly more gammy than the lake trout.

The large-mouthed bass and pickerel are usually ranked with the yellow perch, I don't know why: Perhaps it is because they do not leap out of water when hooked. Both are good on the table.

At the commencement of the open season and until the young maple leaves are half grown, bait will prove to be far more successful than the fly. At this time the trout are pretty evenly distributed along lake shores and streams, choosing to lie quietly in rather deep pools and avoiding swift water.

A few may rise to the fly in a logy, indifferent way; but the best way to take them is bait-fishing with angle-worms or white grubs, the latter being the best bait I have ever tried. They take the bait sluggishly at this season, but, on feeling the hook, wake up to their normal activity and fight gamely to the last.

When young, newborn insects begin to drop freely on the water about the 20th of May, trout leave the pools and take to the riffles. And from this time until the latter part of June the fly-fisherman is in his glory.

When the sun is hot and the weather grows warm, trout leave the ripples and take to cold springs and spring-holes; the largest fish, of course, monopolizing the deepest and coolest places, while the smaller ones hover around, or content themselves with shallower water. As the weather gets hotter, the fly-fishing falls off badly.

A few trout of six to eight ounces in weight may still be raised, but the larger ones are lying on the bottom and are not to be fooled with feathers. They will take a tempting bait when held before their noses--sometimes; at other times, not.

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