Fishing the Pool 107 



that the change accounts for his success. He 

 does not know that the fish would not have taken 

 his Silver Doctor if he had seen it, nor that there 

 were any rising fish in the water he has passed 

 over. A pool may contain a dozen salmon, none 

 of which will rise at anything, or hold but a 

 single occupant, and he ready to take any fly, or 

 a particular one. A hungry fish, like a hungry 

 man, will eat almost anything. If his stomach is 

 full or his appetite is failing, he may be attracted 

 by unusual tidbits, and may even change his 

 mind about one of them when he has looked it 

 over. The only approximately certain way of 

 knowing whether a fish desires a fly of a certain 

 kind, or none, is to fish over him with different 

 varieties of those he doesn't want until you show 

 him the one he does. It is rare in my experience 

 that a fish over which one fly has been cast with- 

 out result will rise to another shown him very 

 soon after, though I have had two notable in- 

 stances to the contrary. One morning, late in 

 June, '82, I was fishing the Mowat pool at the 

 upper end of our water in the Restigouche, where 

 the bottom is very level and the stream, though 

 running swiftly, is as smooth as glass. The water 

 was about five feet deep and very clear. I hooked 



