CONCERNING 
BY GEORGE 
We, that is my fishing chum and I, 
have been trouting again. We 
been through many troubles before, in 
each other’s company, but this time we 
have 
eclipsed our past records for general 
misery, and got such a dose of spring 
trout fishing that we came home feel- 
ing satisfied. We remarked that we 
had hadenough. It is a great thing to 
know when you have had enough; some 
people never do, but we are smarter 
than the average run of humanity. 
Our friends who make fun of us be- 
cause we like to go trouting, and soak 
our legs in the rippling waters of the 
streams, think we are a little more 
idiotic than the average run of human- 
ity, but that is only their individual 
opinion, and don’t count for much. 
I generally lay the blame for any 
trouble we get into on my friend, for 
he has originated quite a number of 
wild goose trips, but I don’t suppose it 
would be fair to give him the credit of 
this trip, because if we had gone when 
he wanted to, we would have had lovely 
weather, and, doubtless, caught some 
trout. He waited a week to accom- 
modate me, and now he says he will 
never be accommodating again, but he 
will, because he is good natured. He 
also says that Iam a hoodoo. I don’t 
think that is so, butif I am a hoodoo I 
am badly damaged from soaking in ice 
water, so I don’t think my influence can 
be very strong hereafter, and he may 
go off again with me, some time, after 
we get over our rheumatism. 
We wanted to get some early spring 
fishing this year, before all the big 
SPRING 
TROUT PIS EEN G. 
H. PAYSON. 
trout lies were disposed of. We usually 
go after the frisky and uncertain trout 
in June. By that time the streams 
have been raked over so often that you 
can see a trout dodge when you cast 
your fliesat him. There has been such 
a procession of anglers along the stream 
that the bank has been worn brush 
bare in places, and you can trace their 
devastating task by old lunch papers 
and tin bait cans. The trout have had 
such a variety of unwholesome food 
forced upon them by that time, that 
they regard eating as a suicidal occupa- 
tion, and wag their tails at you in de- 
rision, aS you present another fatal 
dinner to their notice. 
The streams are getting low then, 
too, and there is no use fishing in the 
middle of the day, except for exercise. 
If it happens to be the time of full 
moon, the natives will tell you there is 
no use fishing, except at night, and in 
proof of it some local artist will turn 
up at breakfast time with a fine string 
of half pounders or over, which he 
caught ‘‘ after midnight, just below the 
dam.”” You go out the next night, but 
you don’t do likewise. The stream 
looks awfully black and gloomy, and 
you walk off a ledge of rocks into four 
feet of water before you have fairly 
got started. We have been all through 
this business and are chuck full of ex- 
perience, and that is why we wanted 
some spring fishing, of the kind we 
read about in the sporting papers. 
We had a spell of phenominally hot 
weather about the first of May, and 
there was no use trying to do any work 
