HOW TROUr TAKE THE FLY 



times have seemed the most difficult to hook, and 

 it has been with the sportsmen an exciting en- 

 deavor to hook the fish by the angler's wrist- 

 knack ; and they have done so, perhaps, in various 

 parts of the body, and frequently in the tail ; but 

 it never struck them that the trout might use his 

 tail to get the fly into his mouth, and the idea of 

 the accomplishment of such a thing would appear 

 like a trick of legerdemain (if slapping a fly with 

 its tail would be called a sleight of hand in a 

 trout). 



Ordinary trout which are hungry make straight 

 for the lure ; they have always been known as 

 bold biters ; feed them with worms attached to a 

 bookless string, and the trout always come head 

 on to the bait; and under most conditions trout 

 seem to bite naturally, the tail having nothing to 

 do with the operation ; so these unobservant 

 fishermen conclude that, while they may have 

 seen an elephant poke food into his mouth with 

 what some persons have supposed to be his tail, 

 or have seen John Chinaman chuck his food into 

 his mouth with a chopstick, or a dexterous Jap 

 toss up an object with his foot and catch it in his 

 mouth, they never have seen a trout knock a fly 

 into his mouth with his tail — never ! This is 

 undoubtedly literally true; but the real question 



245 



