A}iicrica)i fisheries Soeiety. 181 



our newspapers to-day ever publish anything rchahle or readable 

 upon the subject of inland fishing. I know nothing about the 

 deep sea fishing or the sport to be found along the coast, but I 

 do know and realize Uill well that few of the writers for our news- 

 papers of to-day have any real conception of the deligiits and the 

 experiences of inland tishing. especially of brook trout. We read 

 descriptions which no (loul)t j^lease the greaat masses of the peo- 

 ple very well, and we read stories which to the tcnderfeel sound 

 well enough. We read in magazines of great catches being made 

 imder conditions cjuite as harrowing or as romantic to the ordin- 

 arv reader as they -ire amusing to the old timer, and they are 

 published in all good faith, too. It was but a few weeks ago that 

 one of the metropolitan papers referred to a man "sitting upon a 

 log in the middle of the stream fishing for trout,'' and another 

 verv excellent newspaper recently contained a Stniday story 

 about two trout fishermen who "waded upstream until they were 

 all worn out, in the search for speckled beauties." Similar refer- 

 ence might also be made to many of the illustrations, intended to 

 show scenes and incident upon trout streams. They picture 

 whiskered gentlemen with the inevitable English outing cap, a 

 briar pipe, double-breasted jackets and top boots, and the fisher- 

 man is usually using a long and well bent rod from the bank or 

 standing in very shallow water. Of course, many fishernr.n 

 smoke briar pipes, and many of them fish from the bank, but 

 everv' trout fisherman knows that the picture is by no means true 

 to nature. 



The trouble is that there are so few of the newspaper men 

 who know anything about the sport. In our busy life we have 

 little time for such things. When an editor or reporter gets a 

 little time for rest and relaxation he goes to put it in al-mg lines 

 familiar to him, and few of us have apparently had the opportun- 

 ity to become acquainted with the delights and the very sub- 

 stantial benefits of a day or a week upon the trout stream. The 

 members of vour Association can do some mi.^sionary work in 

 this field with promise of certain and .satisfactory results. 1 know 

 this from mv own experience. 



