Brook and river trouting / A manual of modern north country methods, with coloured illustrations of flies and fly-dressing materials

by Harfield H. Edmonds; Norman N. Lee

The fishing should be done upstream and the Creeper cast gently, with an avoidance of jerk. The fly fisherman will soon instinctively feel the amount of power he can put into his casts. The rod point must be raised slowly as the bait trundles down, so that there is no drag. When the line stops or draws away, the angler tightens at once; otherwise the fish may eject the bait.

The most productive places in Creeper fishing are usually the edges of the streams, but rougher water and the necks of streams will often yield fish; and all places where trout are known or expected to be should be tried, particularly about boulders and where a current in the river is contracted into a narrow run.

About the last week in May the Creepers will be found to be quitting the water and fastening themselves to the rocks and stones on the river’s brim, to the buttresses of bridges, and to those rocks which stand out above the water. Here it is possible at times to watch the Stone Fly emerge through the slit in the back of the Creeper, leaving the perfectly-shaped skin rigid behind it, although in general Stone Flies hatch during the night.

Once the Fly is hatching in numbers, the carnival begins, although very few are to be seen unless they are searched for. An odd fly may be seen occasionally being carried down the stream or paddling across a shallow, but for the most part the Stone Flies lie very close in their hiding places beneath the stones near the water. Consequently the ideal conditions for Stone Fly fishing are when a fresh of a few inches comes suddenly down the river and washes them out of their hiding places.

The large females with the long wings are usually preferred by both fishermen and trout; the fishermen find them easy to see on the water, and the trout no doubt find them a satisfying mouthful. The males vary in size, although they are smaller than the females and have shorter wings; the smallest males are difficult to see when cast on the water and soon become water-logged; the larger males are almost as good as the females. The males are called “Jacks.” If males are used, the hooks of the tackle should be nearer together than the hooks in the tackle usually used in Stone Fly fishing.

It is not as a rule difficult to collect a supply of Stone Flies, but the males greatly outnumber the females. As they are picked up they can be placed in one of the Stone Fly boxes sold for the purpose, a transparent one for preference. The tackle and rod line and cast for Stone Fly fishing are exactly the same as those described for Creeper fishing, and the fly should be put on the hooks in the same manner as the Creeper.

The fishing should again be upstream and the Stone Fly be cast as in Creeper fishing; but, whereas the Creeper is fished under the water, the Stone Fly is fished on the surface, as it loses much of its attractiveness when water-logged. It will stand a fair amount of knocking about, but jerks should be avoided, as tending to throw the fly off the hooks.

The Stone Fly accounts for some large fish, and sometimes those old warriors that have passed the regular fly-taking stage, and have become wily and big, succumb to its charms. Therefore it is well to remember that all places which harbour a trout will often yield one under proper conditions; and, although the streams fish about as well with Stone Fly as with anything else, it should not be forgotten that trout, when on the feed, very often leave the streams for shallow water, and for any vantage point where the current concentrates all the flotsam and jetsam from yards above into one narrow channel, and that they love to haunt the neighbourhood of rocks and boulders.

The Stone Fly will kill many fish which are not strictly on the feed, but which cannot resist the temptation to make the most of the Stone Fly season when a great juicy female fly floats overhead. If the reader bears this fact in mind he will seize the opportunity in the early summer to get the big one which has so often waved a vanishing tail at his flies.

The size of the fly is against its being sucked in as easily as the usual artificial, and it is of advantage to give a moment’s grace before striking when a fish rises. Never to be forgotten is the disappointment of a too hasty strike one lovely early June morning. The angler was out before the sun topped the fell, and a few brace were already in the creel, when he reached a perfect eddy at the side of the main stream. The Stone Fly was cast secundum artem (would that the further proceedings had been on the same plane!). It had hardly alighted when a big fish came up like a porpoise. Alas! quick as light the eager one tightened without allowing the moment’s grace, down went the fish and played strongly, facing the current and giving heartrending jars to the line. Confidence was beginning to take the place of fear of a light hold, when up the beauty came, headed into the stream and came down with all the force of its waters thrown into the scale. He was just opposite the angler when the rod flew up, and that sorrowful angler saw no more of what would undoubtedly have been his big fish of the season.