Chapter III.
CREEPER AND STONE FLY FISHING.
There are not many streams in the North that have a distinct rise of May Fly or Green Drake, and for that reason the writers have not given any dressings of that fly, nor do they propose to devote space to a consideration of May Fly fishing. To make up for the loss of that beautiful Ephemera there is on most of these rivers the sober-hued Stone Fly, whose season almost coincides with that of the May Fly.
The flies are very different. The one, elegant and dainty, is to be seen one moment floating with wings upright upon the surface, then drifting in the breeze, while the other, dark coloured and of unprepossessing aspect, merges from the Creeper stage only to scuttle under the stones and remain quietly in darkness till nightfall, making off once more for obscurity if by chance its whereabouts is revealed.
The Stone Fly has four wings, which in repose are folded flat over the back. It passes the greater part of its existence in the Creeper state, in which it can be found during the latter part of April and throughout May under the stones in shallow water near the edges of streams. The Creeper varies in colour from an olive green to a dull dark brown, strong yellow showing at the junction of the segments of the body. It is of somewhat repulsive appearance, and measures from half an inch to nearly an inch in length. It has six legs, two caudal setæ, and two antennæ.
It is often difficult to collect a supply of Creepers; not that they are particularly active, but the disturbance of the water caused by lifting the stones is apt to hide them while they wriggle under other stones. It is stated that if the angler, wishing to secure a supply, stands with his back to the current of the river and holds his landing net upright before him with the top of the net resting on the river bed, and then shuffles his brogues amongst the stones, the Creepers displaced by his activity will be washed into the waiting net and a plentiful supply be thus secured. The writers have never been particularly successful in this device, but that is no reason why others should not try it. The Creepers obtained are best kept in a tin box, together with a little damp moss.
There is no doubt that the Creeper forms an important item in the trout’s menu in Spring, as an autopsy of the day’s catch at that time of the year will reveal; and many is the Creeper that has been grabbed by a watchful fish as it ventured from out its hiding place, or that has been torn from beneath the stones by a questing trout. Creepers are very plentiful in those North Country rivers which have the typical stony bed, but the season of the Creeper being April and May, the writers do not often fish it, nor is Creeper fishing generally much followed, as during that time of the year fly fishing is at its very best. Still, if on occasion the reader has found his most carefully dressed flies fail to rise a fish—as they will sometimes even in Spring—he might do worse than collect a few Creepers, as this method of fishing forms a pleasant variant of the fisherman’s craft and throws a further light upon the habits and life and whereabouts of the trout.
The line should be well greased, and the cast (as in fly fishing), three yards tapered down to finest drawn gut with a form of Pennell tackle at the end, having the lower hook a size larger than the upper one (this latter being size No. 3 in the scale before mentioned on page 8). The bend of one hook should be five-eighths of an inch from the bend of the other, the hooks to be whipped on with olive green silk for preference. The fly rod and line complete the outfit.
The end hook of the tackle should be put through the Creeper almost at the extremity of its tail, where it is toughest, and the other hook in the unhappy beast’s shoulder, not the head, as the head is liable to tear off.