Part 25

67. Poor Man’s Fly.

68. Pheasant.

69. Romeyn.

70. Morrison.

71. Katy-did.

72. Claret.

73. Hoskins.

74. Caldwell.

75. Iron Dun.

76. Queen of the Water.

77. Olive Gnat.

78. Brown Coffin.

“The deftly-tossed fly, taking wing on the nerve of a masterly cast, will drop gracefully far out in the stream where the heavier gear of the bait rod would never aspire to reach.”—Charles Hallock.

“Fly-fishing may well be considered the most beautiful of all rural sports.”—“Frank Forester.”

“To be a perfect trout fisher, to my mind, a man should follow no other branch of fishing. It spoils his hand if he does. I myself, from the practice of striking so hard in both salmon, pike and other fishing, lose numbers of fish and flies in the course of the season; and what makes it the more vexing is that they are nearly always the best and heaviest fish.”—Francis Francis.

“If a pricked trout is chased into another pool, he will, I believe, soon again take the artificial fly.”—Sir Humphry Davy.

“It is only the inexperienced and thoughtless who find pleasure in killing fish for the mere sake of killing them. No sportsman does this.”—W. C. Prime.

“We persevered, notwithstanding the storm, and got our hundred trout, all alive and active, into Lake Salubria. They did not, however, multiply as we hoped they would. For years one would hear occasionally of a great trout being caught in the lake, till at last they were all gone. They lacked the ripples and the running water. They lived to be old, and then died without progeny, ‘making no sign.’”—S. H. Hammond.

“The trout is such a light food, that eight of them, some ten inches long, will not make a supper for a hearty man, leading this wilderness life.”—“Porte Crayon.”

“I believe I am sincere in saying that I enjoy seeing another man throw a fly, if he is a good and graceful sportsman, quite as much as doing it myself.”—W. C. Prime.

“I was content with my one glimpse, by twilight, at the forest’s great and solemn heart; and having once, alone, and in such an hour, touched it with my own hand and listened to its throb, I have felt the awe of that experience evermore.”—A. Judd Northrup.

THE POETRY OF FLY FISHING

By F. E. Pond.

It has been said that the angler, like the poet, is born, not made. This is a self-evident fact. Few men have risen to the dignity of anglers who did not in early youth feel the unbearable impulse to go a-fishing. There are, of course, noteworthy exceptions, but the rule holds good. It might be added, too, that the genuine angler is almost invariably a poet, although he may not be a jingler of rhymes—a ballad-monger. Though, perhaps, lacking the art of versification, his whole life is in itself a well-rounded poem, and he never misses the opportunity to “cast his lines in pleasant places.”

This is particularly true of the artistic fly-fisher, for with him each line is cast with the poetry of motion. Ned Locus, the inimitable character of J. Cypress’ “Fire Island Ana,” is made to aver that he “once threw his fly so far, so delicately, and suspendedly, that it took life and wings, and would have flown away, but that a four-pound trout, seeing it start, jumped a foot from the water and seized it, thus changing the course of the insect’s travel from the upper atmosphere to the bottom of his throat.” Being quoted from memory, these may not be the words exactly, as Toodles would say, but the sentiment is the same. There is the true poetical spirit pervading the very air, whispering from the leaves, murmuring in the brook, and thus the surroundings of the angler complete that which nature began, and make him a poet. In common with other sports of the field, though in greater degree:

“It is a mingled rapture, and we find

The bodily spirit mounting to the mind.”

Bards have sung its praises, traditions have hallowed it, and philosophers have revelled in the gentle pastime, from the days of Oppian and Homer down to Walton, Christopher North and Tennyson.