Fishing with Floating Flies

by Samuel G. Camp

How To Fish the Floating Fly
(Continued)

Casting purely to the rise is the orthodox way of dry fly fishing on the English chalk streams; that this manner of fishing the floater is of necessity subordinated to fishing all the water on American streams has been mentioned heretofore. Save in extremely favorable localities where the conditions closely approximate those of the British streams, stalking the fish is practically love's labor lost. However, large, quiet pools may be fished in this way if the angler selects the most propitious time for rising trout—in the warm season a little before sundown and for some time thereafter. Extensive, quiet reaches where the fishing is open may also at times be resorted to with the idea of casting to the rise, and some fair sport obtained.

Regarding the sporting merits of the two methods, I personally am sure that if conditions allowed I would never cast a fly except to a rising trout. The visible rise of a trout always appears in the nature of a challenge, and my inability to get away from a place where I positively know a good trout is located has frequently resulted in my return with a pretty light creel. When casting over a pool, no matter how good, while fishing all the water, lack of success eventually breeds a doubt as to the presence of a trout therein; anglers going before may have temporarily fished it out or for some other reason, the pool may be barren at the time.

But when casting over a rising trout everything is certain and well-defined. You know where the fish is located, or at least where he came up; you generally have a pretty fair idea of his size; if duly observant you can guess closely to what sort of natural fly the fish rose, everything is sure save the eventual capture of that particular trout. You are fairly certain that if the right fly is put over the fish in the right way success will follow. It is up to you.

To cast with some understanding to a rising trout, it is very necessary that the angler be somewhat familiar with the habits of the fish when feeding upon the floating insect and also be fairly conversant with the life histories of what may be termed the fishing flies. That rises occur when the fish are not feeding, that sometimes the trout roll up to or leap above the surface, is well known to the experienced stream fisherman. With this feature of the matter we are not here concerned; the habit has been variously accounted for by anglers and icthyologists but the motive of the fish in thus acting is still debatable. However this may be, the angler may safely conclude that any visible rise—save generally a clear leap above the surface—is a rise to the natural fly by a feeding trout until the contrary may appear from the attendant circumstances.

It is with the bona fide rise of a trout to the floating natural fly that the dry fly caster is chiefly concerned. But in this connection it should be noted that the feeding of trout upon the natural insect is by no means confined to the time of the latter's appearance strictly on the surface. Of the water-bred insects the Ephemeridae, called "duns" when in the sub-imago state, occupy the place of greatest importance in the entomology of the dry fly fisherman. In a later chapter something is said of the commoner insect life of the stream; it should here be noted, however, that trout feed upon the Ephemeridae, for instance, at all stages of their existence.

From the eggs deposited upon or in the water by the adult insect, or "spinner," in due time the nymphs are hatched. Upon these the trout feed at times on the stream-bed and in the weeds, nosing upon the bottom and in the aquatic vegetation in somewhat the same way as the common sucker or the German carp go about their business of drawing sustenance from the muck and weeds of the stream-bed. This habit of the trout, when followed in shallow water, results in an occasional disturbance of the surface by the tails of the fish and is called "tailing" in the nomenclature of the English dry fly fisherman. In this connection it should be noted, however, that the nymphs of the Ephemeridae which burrow under rocks and in the stream-bed and there remain until about to assume the first winged, or dun, state are practically inaccessible to the fish, although doubtless taken at times. Tailing trout are usually feeding upon caddis and other larvae.

Subsequently the nymphs, having undergone certain physical changes while in the nymphal stage, are ready to rise to the surface, cast off the nymphal shuck or envelope, and emerge into the air in the first winged state (sub-imago) at which time, as noted, they are called duns. During the rise of the nymphs to the surface, when about to assume the dun state, they are often taken by the trout with avidity, and frequently when the nymph has neared the surface a trout taking it will visibly disturb the surface or break water—again in dry fly parlance called "bulging."

Ground-feeding or tailing trout and trout feeding in mid-water upon nymphs floating up to the surface—bulging trout—are manifestly not genuinely rising fish. To consider briefly once more the life history of the Ephemeridae: when the "hatch" is on, the nymph upon reaching the surface splits open the nymphal envelope and at once takes wing as a dun—an ephemeral fly in the sub-imago or first winged state. When the duns are thus hatching the fly may float for some little distance while ridding itself of the nymphal envelope and drying its wings for flight; a rise to the fly at this time is a true rise. It would seem, however, from very close observation of the water during a good many plentiful hatches of duns, that only an occasional insect, as compared with the great numbers hatching, remains upon the water for any appreciable time while undergoing the metamorphosis from nymph to dun—the change is in most cases practically instantaneous. You may select any certain area of water, when duns are emerging constantly from every part of a pool, and watch that certain area with the utmost intentness; the chances are you will not see a single fly actually upon the water although many do, indeed, emerge from the water under observation and fly away.