TROUT FLY-FISHING IN AMERICA 



any food that is tainted or foul at any time, whether or 

 not it be alive or dead. 



The fact that trout are clean feeders establishes two 

 other facts: namely, that their sense of smell is well de- 

 veloped, and that all water in which trout can live is per- 

 fectly safe for the angler to drink. 



As no two trout waters are alike, the habits and the 

 habitats of the trout must also differ in many ways; the 

 reader therefore must not take anything that I have said 

 about them as applying absolutely to any particular trout 

 water, my intention being to give only a general idea of 

 trout habits and their environments under certain con- 

 ditions. 



Many conditions other than the environment of trout 

 have to do with their habits at different times in the sea- 

 son and in the same place, such as weather, time of day, 

 kind of day, the condition and temperature of the water. 



"No living man can say," writes a well-known angler, "when, 

 upon unfamiliar waters, what fly will prove most alluring. The 

 greater his experience the more tentative does he consider his first 

 efforts." 



"Every stream has its own peculiarities not only as to the most 

 successful fly, but as to the habits of its trout as well." 



My experience has been that trout, both in streams and 

 lakes, rise most readily to the artificial fly when they have 

 been and are feeding, and are nearly, if not quite, gorged. 



Why this should be the case I have never been able 

 to determine satisfactorily; but that it is a fact I have no 



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