10 FISHERMAN'S LURES 



opening and closing season as it now stands. 

 Whether it be politicians or the conservation 

 officials, they seem to have done their very ut- 

 most to inconvenience the angler and destroy 

 the trout. The best natural trout streams in the 

 State are located in the higher altitudes of the 

 Catskills and Adirondack mountains, where the 

 temperature remains low, with ice and snow water 

 still running up to the end of April, and often 

 later. Till that cold water is run off, all fish food, 

 minnows, bottom creepers, and insects are still 

 dormant. The river is void of life, and is nearly 

 always a raging flood. After the long winter's rest 

 from fishing, most anglers naturally await the 

 opening day with impatience, and, without real- 

 izing what adverse conditions will greet them, 

 take their first trip only to find their lines freeze 

 to the rod-tip no trout responding to their flies; 

 no insects in flight except a few small species on 

 warm days, which are rare. 

 A member of New York's most exclusive fish- 

 ing club told me that the opening day in 1919, 

 after a very mild winter, was bitter cold. A heavy 

 snow-storm made him very uncomfortable while 

 wading the stream, located at a low altitude in 

 New Jersey. He went on to say, "fly-fishing was 



