ANGLING NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14162, 30 September 1911, Page 4

ANGLING NOTES.

TO-MORROW.

(By "Iron Blue.")

(IHCMIXY WBITTEN lOR "THIS FRKM. ) J To-morrow —well, well, then let us say the next day; for although tomorrow is "the first," it comes on a Sunday in the natural cours© of events, and the proverb, "Better tho day, better tho deed/ may not always apply. Call it Monday, then, and so with a clear conscience we can go a-fishing immediately, if not sooner; but I can't alter the calendar anyway, and the Ist j of October is the most important day in the angler's year. All the anticipations and expectations which have j Deen carefully stored up for five long j months wiil be carried now as carefully | to the waterside and there liberated; * undoubtedly to the great interest of j "Salmo fario," the common or rippletrout. That they will have a good effect in filling tha basket remains to bo proved. 1 think they simply must, after so much care, but according to j the appetite of our ripple-trout—l j trust not otherwise—we shall hook and | deal with'him on "the first/or leave J him happily in tho water Until the j second. - j Now wo can proceed to work a fewdeductions, or perhaps an addition of chances, -as the case may be. To begin with, avo have tho liquid fact that both brooks and rivers contain plenty of water, and we shall not, as on the last, "first," have to look ail along a socalled fly-stream for a pool deep enough to float a fly. Then most of these same fly streams seem to hold a good stock of trout. There aro not in many waters tho leviathans of former years; unfortunately they are to bo accounted lost during those two disastrous dry summers, and successors have not yet grown to take their plaoo, but in favoured spots are installed new comers from the sea, and apparently there is no lack of what are known as " good fly-fish." Only a trial, or several, can decide as to tho size of the stock contained by the larger rivers, some of which are still coming down in flood or fresh. Before they became coloured, the report was frequently " plenty of good fish," and though that sounds particularly nice and satisfactory, it may happen to •bo truo in spite of that. All things considered, it is perhaps tho best plan to go soonest to some well-known stream of one's close acquaintance, there to try the pools that you are fairly suro must hold some fish, for they seem far more valuable early in tEo seaeon, and an empty basket owing to thick water on "tho first" is Justwell, a wholly undesirable thing. On setting forth to begin a new season it is better to havo everything put just so the night before. At all events, we then intend to make an early start, and a little thing left behind may spoil tlio pleasure of a day. Onco thero was a man who forgot the reel, and that man Avas "mc, ,, but I don't do that now. Experience taught that once was enough, and for a long time I had a list of tho things that should always bo ready in tho basket, written out plainly on a card sewn inside the lid. As a first step towards fishing, I made sure that everything on tho list was safely in tho basket, and though it cost a moment's trouble, I strongly recommend the idea to any forgetful man. Besides creature comforts, it is always worth while to carry a sort of luxurycase for comfort in fishing. It is a small leather case containing fly-pliers, a tiny file, a spring-balance, folding scissors, a lancet, a disgorger, and a lot of other things that are not really necessary, but which one is pretty suro to find helpful at some time during tho day. For instance, the disgorger v certainly a safeguard against torn hands when getting the hooks out of a big fish, and moreover it is easy to make. Flatten out the end of a bit \ of fencing -wire with a hammer, file a j notch in the flattened part, and there you aro. - Whatever "to-morrow" may bring— for bye I put little trust in the assorted appearance of the weather at this moment—it will bo good to get.; back to the waterside, and to send a questing fly across tho stream. As we ! go on we cli all note the changes j wrought by winter floods, which in doing their worst may possibly have altered our pet pool into a barren shingle waste. If this bae happened, there is need to go on quickly, to discover the new places that now harbour the trout; for early in October the rise is often catchy and of short duration, and from my own experience it may occur at any hour. Then, probably, some fisherman we meet will insist on comparing tho sport of the day with that of other firsts; when should the trout be showing a proper desire for the fly we shall wish him elsewhere accordingly, but this year I think the comparison will be to the advantage of thd present over several recently past. Now, as Henry hae it, I am going to "demean" myself by trying some "Stewart-tackle" as preventives of desoair. should the water be in flood; for really I must try to catch a trout ! on "the first." ''So here's a tight line," and while I think of it you may have forgotten this rough and ready wav to ceparate those ferrules, which aro likely enough to stick together when it is long after the pnroer time to go home. The way will take a little of the burnishing off the braes, but that is much better for the rod than tho wrenching and straining it often undergoes at such a time. Just light a match or matches, and , heat both ferrule and socket; -when the joints will come easily apart. Useful things those matches, if one only knows how.