38 SEA-TROUT FISHING 



of whose existence you were previously totally unaware ; a pleasure 

 which Thoreau considered somewhat akin to drawing the winning 

 ticket in a lottery. 



It may happen that when angling for sea-trout one finds himself 

 suddenly confronted with his big cousin, the salmon, as illustrated 

 by the following anecdote from the diary of an old friend who, to 

 borrow Izaak Walton's familiar epitaph, was ' a good angler and 

 now with God.' This shows how the unexpected sometimes happens 

 in sea-trout fishing. 



Mr. Baillie, grandson of the Old Frontier missionary, was fishing 

 the General's Bridge River (Annapolis Co., N.S.) upstream for 

 trout, standing above his knees in water, with an old negro, Peter 

 Prince, at his elbow. In the very act of casting a trout fly he saw 

 a large salmon lingering in a deep hole a few yards away from his 

 feet. The sun favoured him, throwing his shadow behind. To 

 remain motionless, pull out a spare htfok and penknife, and with 

 a bit of his old hat and some of the grey old negro's wool to make 

 a salmon fly then and there, he and the negro standing in the running 

 stream, was the work of only a few minutes. This fly must have 

 been the original of Norris' famous killing ' silver greyt ! ' 



In the early part of the season the sea-trout, especially in tidal 

 waters, prefer gaudy flies such as the red hackle and scarlet ibis, 

 or a bright claret body with white wings. A distinction must be 

 made in the size and colour of flies for use in the rough rapids, or 

 in dark pools covered, as is often the case, with an inch or two of 

 creamy or snow-white flocks of foam, also between those tied for 

 the dark water of some streams which have their sources from lakes 

 encumbered with beds of black mud from which shoots upward a 

 rank growth of water plants, and these which issue from clear 

 mountain springs. The same flies are not equally effective on dark 

 days, or when the wind ripples the water and when the sun shines 

 bright and clear. During the fishing season there are apt to be far 

 fewer cloudy days than bright ones. Frequently the sun rises 

 and sets day after day in unclouded splendour. There are many 

 picturesque trout pools, however, where precipitous cliffs shade 

 the water so as to admit of a couple of hours' good fishing both in 

 the early and late hours of the day. Were the sportsman compelled 

 to confine himself to one fly for both bright and dark days, clear 

 water or turgid, he could not do better than select the Parmachene 

 Belle, which is irresistible at almost all times to a feeding trout. 

 Many very successful sportsmen limit their range of sea-trout fli< 

 to bodies of claret, yellow, or orange, with wings of turkey, drake, 

 teal, or woodcock mingled with the black and white of the jungle 

 fowl. The very best trout fishing cannot be had except by camp- 



