PREFACE ix 



If the wet or dry fly angler fails to lure trout, he 

 does not stop to reason why, but promptly digs 

 some worms. If that fails he comforts himself with 

 the assurance of having done his very best. A 

 careful reading of this volume will, I hope, convince 

 him that there is a better way — a higher and much 

 more pleasing and effective way to get his desires 

 fulfilled. 



For the information required concerning game- 

 fishes and their food, I have had to rely entirely 

 upon my own nature study, finding nothing of 

 value on habits and habitats necessary to this 

 work in either angling or scientific works. Scien- 

 tists deem it more important to tell the number of 

 scales on the gills, while angling authors write on 

 tackle, and how to use it. Curiously enough, each 

 generation repeats the other, from Cuvier the 

 scientist and Walton the angler down the line to 

 our times. 



For the colored page of minnows I am much in- 

 debted to John W. Titcomb, N. Y. State fish cul- 

 turist, in loaning me government color-plates from 

 his private library from which to make copies. 

 Also my thanks are due the Hon. Hugh McCor- 

 mick Smith, Chief Commissioner of Fisheries, 

 Washington, D. C, for his courtesy in giving me 



