Fishing with Floating Flies

by Samuel G. Camp

PLAYING A TROUT

As a rule when fishing with the dry fly the fish will be upstream from the angler when hooked. If possible keep him there. In the majority of instances the trout will bore upstream, or angle upstream to one side or the other, and will not turn and run down with the current unless roughly and carelessly handled. Nurse the fish along, exerting a constant but not too heavy strain, so that he will continue to fight upstream against the current, thus tiring more quickly; in other words, "play it safe." If by any chance the fish gets below you, "takes the bit in his teeth" and runs with the current, go with him. Wade if you can, but if this is impossible get out of the stream as quickly as you can and follow down along the bank. As soon as possible get the fish upstream from you again.

Never try to net a fish which is downstream from you; get below him and let the current float him over the net—not away from it.

With regard to tackle handling while playing a trout, I might abbreviate here from an article which I contributed to The Outing Magazine for July, 1911, as further experience has served only to strengthen my belief in the methods set forth therein. That skilled tackle handling, after the rise, is at a premium in trout fly-fishing is due not only to the delicacy of the tackle ordinarily employed, particularly the very small hooks and often fragile leaders, but to the distinctly game qualities of the brook trout itself and the usually difficult angling conditions afforded by its habitat. There is all the difference in the world between playing a fish in still and fast water, and the brook trout is essentially a fast water fish.

The way you will play a trout depends in great measure upon how your tackle is rigged. If you have assembled rod, reel and line correctly, the chances are that you will soon discover and adopt the best method of handling a hooked trout; on the other hand, if your tackle is improperly adjusted, it will be physically impossible for you to go after your trout the right way. The necessity of saying something about how to adjust your rod, reel and line is apparent.

In his book "The Theory and Practice of Dry Fly Fishing," Mr. F. M. Halford advises a method of assembling rod and reel which is directly contrary to the usage and advice of most seasoned American fly-fishermen. Briefly, his advice is to have the reel on the under side of the rod with the handle to the left, presuming that the angler casts with the right hand. When a trout is hooked the rod is passed to the left hand, turned over so the reel is on top, and the fish is then played directly from the reel.

In view of the fact that Mr. Halford is a universally acknowledged authority in fly-fishing matters, it would, indeed, be presumptuous in me to say that this method of handling a hooked trout and of assembling rod and reel is all wrong, were it not that, as I am quite sure, the majority of experienced American fly-casters so regard it. The practice of most expert fly-casters in this country is to adjust the reel underneath the rod, but, in contradistinction to the method above described, with the handle of the reel to the right. Thus, when a fish is hooked, it is not necessary to turn the rod over when it is passed from the right to the left hand, but the reel is retained underneath the rod at all times, the very best position for it, for several reasons, for the business of fly-fishing. Moreover, the best way to play a trout is distinctly not from the reel. It is taken for granted in the above discussion, and also in the following, that the fly-caster uses a single-action reel.

I believe implicitly that the best way to handle a hooked trout, the one sooner or later adopted by most anglers who do much fly-fishing, is as follows: Having, as above noted, your reel underneath the rod with the handle to the right, maintain at all times, both when casting the flies and playing a fish, a loop of line of convenient length between the reel and the first guide of the rod. This loop of line is controlled by the left hand, allowing the line to run out through the guides or, when necessary, drawing it back. Use the reel only when the loop of line grows so long that, when you are wading the stream, there is danger of fouling the line. When casting from a boat or canoe there is little chance of fouling the line no matter what the length of the loop may be if you take pains to lay down the line evenly on the bottom boards.

Now when you hook a trout you do not, at this very critical point, have to pass the rod from the right to the left hand and, what is worse, turn the rod over so that the reel will be on top. On the contrary, you "stand pat," as it were, still keeping the rod in the right hand and, if the trout is a large one, yielding the line to him through the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, or, if the fish is a small one, gradually drawing in the line—and the trout—with the left hand without recourse to the reel. When stripping in the line, clip it to the handgrasp of the rod between the first and second fingers of the rod-hand.

If the trout is a fairly large one and is hooked in fast water it will often happen that his first run will exhaust the loop of free line. Then, when he stops running, pass the rod from the right to the left hand—you do not have to turn it over because your reel handle is placed to the right—and play him from the reel until he gives in a little, when you at once return the rod to the right hand and strip in line with the left.

Playing a trout in this manner one is master of the situation at every stage of the game from the strike to the landing net; and if, at any time, some unusual action of the fish renders the outcome more than ordinarily doubtful, your chances are many times better for getting out of the difficulty than if you depend upon the reel for the intake of your line; for instance, every experienced trout fisherman knows that often a trout will run out many feet of line from the reel and then incontinently about-face and run in toward the angler—one of the most difficult situations the fly-caster is ordinarily called upon to face.

About nine times out of ten—at least it is not safe to rely upon odds more favorable although, of course, sometimes the fish will be so deeply hooked that the chance is lessened—a slack line spells a lost trout. The rapidity with which a fish coming directly toward the angler creates a wake of slack line is difficult to estimate; in any event, the fly-caster's single-action reel is utterly unable to cope with the situation no matter how skilfully the angler may manipulate it.

The fly-caster who handles his fish as here indicated is of all anglers best armed against the running back of a hooked trout. Once you have reduced the action of stripping in the line with the left hand to a purely automatic motion, so that you perform it quickly, expertly, and without forethought in the matter of how to go about it, it is a very fast fish, indeed, which can accumulate much slack line, for the line may be retrieved through the guides far faster than with any sort of reel and almost always with sufficient rapidity to save the fish.

It seems, too—indeed, it is a fact—that when playing a trout in this manner one can usually tell what the fish is going to do before he does it, and the value of this forewarning should be obvious. Every slightest movement of the fish is carried to the left hand of the angler holding the line, and the least lessening or increase of tension between the rod-tip and the quarry is instantly sensed and line taken or given accordingly. Moreover, the method insures against forcing the fish too strenuously because one knows to a practical certainty when there is too much pull—a thing far more difficult to estimate when killing the fish on the reel.