bass have been
caught on young bats. The famous old trout in the Beaverkill River in
New York State, which had refused all the ordinary baits and flies
that were offered him for years and that on bright days could be seen
in a pool lying deep down in the water, finally fell a victim to a
young mouse that was tied to the hook with pink silk.

Fly fishing is the most expert and scientific method of angling. It is
the poetry of fishing. The fly fisherman usually wades in the brook or
stream where he is fishing, although it is sometimes possible to cast
a fly from the bank or a boat. It is useless to go fly fishing while
there is snow water in the brooks but just as soon as the first warm
days of spring come, then fishing is at its best.

The whole idea of casting a fly is to drop it in the most
likely-looking places and to strike the fish just as soon as he seizes
the hook. To do this we must always have the line under perfect
control, therefore do not attempt to cast a line too great a distance.
If we do not fix the hook into the fish's mouth at the instant that
he seizes the fly, he will very soon find that what he thought was a
nice fat bug or juicy caterpillar is nothing but a bit of wool and
some feathers with a sting in its tail, and he will spit it out before
we can recover our slack line.

It is a common mistake to use flies that are too large. Ordinary trout
flies are the proper size for bass and the smallest size trout flies
are plenty large enough for trout. There are hundreds of kinds of
flies of various combinations of colours and no one can say which is
the best. This question has been argued by fishermen ever since the
days of Izaak Walton.

The universal rule of trout and bass fishermen who use a fly is to
select small dark flies for bright days or when the water is very
clear or low and the more brightly coloured ones when the day is dark
or the water dark or turbid. The fly book should contain a varied
assortment to meet these conditions.

The best lines for fly fishing are made of braided enamelled silk.
Some fly lines are tapered but this is not necessary and is a needless
expense. Twisted lines are much cheaper but very unsatisfactory.

Fly fishing is not only the most scientific and sportsmanlike method
of fishing but it is also the most difficult to acquire skill in. It
is of course possible to catch trout and salmon on other bait than
flies. In fact, there is really no better bait for brook t