64 FISHERMAN'S LURES 



the fault is ours. We do not garnish our dish to 

 suit — ^we need consult Chapter XI. 

 Another important matter concerning the sub- 

 ject of this chapter is that in all waters the fish 

 food changes at different parts of the season. 

 Nature provides restricted periods for various 

 creatures to develop. In spring one kind of food 

 is abundant, and absent in summer and fall. In 

 winter the greater part of the food that fish con- 

 sume lies dormant in mud or sand; for that reason 

 it is essential to know what is best to choose for 

 each part of the season. Minnows and the young 

 of other fish do not appear in the shallows of rivers 

 till after snow-water has run off. Temperature 

 controls aquatic life much more than one would 

 suppose. Very little food is taken in early spring, 

 as stomach contents reveal, and what little there 

 is seems to be entirely deep-water creepers. To 

 this fact I attribute the attractiveness of the worm 

 as a bait for trout at the opening season. Fly-fisher- 

 men seem to be fully alive to this condition, for 

 they candidly confess that their efforts are best 

 repaid on that sort of "fly." The popularity of 

 the "dry-fly" has by no means taken the place 

 of the "garden-fly" or plebeian worm, which in 



