464 DISAPPOINTED FISHERMEN. 



This is a good illustration of the uncertain habits of 

 fish alluded to in the opening part of this section, and is 

 a thing which often happens. Improper baits are used 

 by strangers who don't know the water, or they go 

 at wrong seasons or hours and catch nothing, and very 

 likely go away cursing the place, and representing all 

 reports about good fishing there as being fictitious. 

 The author of these pages has himself many times 

 experienced these disappointments, in trying unknown 

 waters in wild countries, until he has been quite dis- 

 heartened ; then perhaps he has either discovered the 

 proper mode of procedure from natives, or has at length 

 himself hit upon some successful expedient, and once 

 this was found out, plenty of fish were easily taken. 



In his experience in many waters, flies are at the 

 best very uncertain, and worms very often can't be 

 found. But grasshoppers, local beetles, grubs, etc. of 

 some kind may be looked for and tried, and failing 

 that, a bit of any kind of liver or lung, or a bit of 

 meat, a shred of white pork rind, all come in well at 

 times. Also of course small fish, when they can be 

 had, generally prove good baits ; but far and away the 

 best, the most portable, most reliable, and durable of 

 all baits both in fresh and salt water is the spoon. 

 Never be without a good outfit of them, of all the 

 different sizes in ordinary use. Avoid the expensive 

 and often useless forms of artificial minnows and other 

 fanciful baits which one sees advertised in sporting 

 papers ; all sorts and sizes of these articles are sold in 

 fishing tackle shops, but in the author's experience, 

 and he has tried many of them, they did not as a rule 

 do well very much the reverse. 



Another celebrated fishing ground in North America 



