446 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



craft. He is never "cornered;" and the gratification of tak- 

 ing fish is enhanced a thousand-fold by the thought that it 

 was done by means of one's own handicraft throughout. 

 To make one's own rod, tie one's own leaders, dress one's 

 own flies, search out oneself the haunts of the stream's Apol- 

 lo, the trout, catch him oneself, and share him around the 

 camp-fire with one's friend, is, me seems, the very pinna- 

 cle of piscatorial accomplishment. Thus did the past mas- 

 ters of the gentle craft, from the earliest days to those of 

 Uncle Thaddeus Norris, of fragrant and well-loved mem- 

 ory. 



Not that the desirability of professional tackle-making is 

 less, but that the principle of resourceful adaptation should 

 be more, in the angler. Flies, and the various appurtenances 

 of the fisherman, can be much better and more truly miade 

 in the work-shop than in the wind-swept woods. There are 

 those who cannot afford the time to attend to the practical 

 refurnishing of the tackle-basket. Life is too short already 

 for such, and certainly too brief for the minutiae of fly- 

 making. They pursue wealth, and get it. They can afford 

 to fill the fly-book, etc., with the best that can be bought. 

 There is nothing to say against this. But such people 

 are in danger of becoming mere "dudes," in the art-piscatorial, 

 and they are apt to evoke a smile of genuine pity from the 

 practical fisherman, as he realizes how much is lost in true 

 enjoyment by this growing tendency of wealth to have every- 

 thing done for it by others. 



George Dawson has well said: "It is not all of fishing to 

 fish." So far as I am personally concerned, the aesthetic 

 pleasures of fishing far outbalance the mere gratification of 

 the grosser man — of the hunting instinct. To sit down and 

 imitate some fairy-winged insect and have the seal of appro- 

 bation placed on it by the leaping fish, is a mental treat to 

 tickle the palate of the intellectual epicure. To make your- 

 self a graceful greenheart or rent cane rod, light and pliant 



