182 FISHERMAN'S LURES 



The right, indeed the only way, will take its proper 

 rank. Anglers will, in time, I hope, fabricate their 

 own lures to suit their own special wants. They 

 will simply be going back to the primitive times 

 of handicraft, when even the savage skilfully 

 worked the most simple materials nature provided 

 him with. Of course, having no tackle shops, he 

 had to do it or starve; but the savage did not 

 starve, neither did he go short of fish. He was 

 wiser and far more humane and skilful than we. 

 The remarkable fact is that he took nature for 

 his guide, this savage. Be he Redskin or Lap, he 

 fully understood the habits and haunts of the 

 game he stalked. That is precisely the attitude 

 I want anglers to take. 



It is not so much my baits I desire used as the 

 adoption of my theory, my method, and my ob- 

 ject in fishing. Use your own, self-made baits by 

 all means; only think what you lose by the pres- 

 ent method. No matter what bait you choose, I 

 verily believe, you can catch fish. But, my dear 

 angling brother, you can catch better than fish 

 along with the fish: Your self-esteem, your self- 

 respect for your higher efforts, and a love of na- 

 ture. You will find your entire life on the streams 

 to be different. You will cease to boast and to brag 



