INTRODUCTION 



The would-be teacher of the art of angling must 

 ever be a pupil. Every day on stream or lake, in 

 waters or in boat, is a lesson, and though one ac- 

 cumulates the experience of a quarter of a century 

 his education is not complete and never would be 

 complete if he lived to be as old as the prehistoric 

 fish we find in neolithic rock. Each cast may present 

 a new problem. Each strike a situation for which 

 there is no " rule " or precedent. 



Experience is the real teacher and to the novice 

 generally a costly one. 



Nevertheless there is a field for instruction and 

 the experience of an " old timer " will be of value 

 to those who are new to the sport and even to veter- 

 ans of the rod whose range of effort has been cir- 

 cumscribed. 



If a man has, year after year, tramped little-fre- 

 quented trails, and blazed new ones for himself; if 

 he has sought out and found the streams where the 

 brook trout rises most readily to the fly, the pools 

 where lurk the largest salmon, the favorite haunts 

 of the bass, the wall-eyed pike and the muskellunge, 

 and if he has matched his wits against all of these 



