22 FISHING- IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



SECTION SECOND. 



PREREQUISITES FOR FISHING. 



In order to pursue with success any branch of fishing, a 

 knowledge of both the senses and habits of fishes is essential. 

 Angling is one of the most ancient methods of fishing, as 

 proven by the centre-draught hook exhumed at Thebes and 

 at Pompeii. The hook used in China, when that realm was 

 first discovered by the Christians, was quite similar in bend, 

 and all of the ancient models left nothing to desire but a barb, 

 which is the only improvement made in the shape of the com- 

 mon fish-hook within three thousand years. And it is worthy 

 of remark, that the bend of the ancient hook is so like the 

 best hooks of the present day- eminently the O'Shaughnessy 

 and the American Kinsey, the latter known as the Pennsyl- 

 vania hook that some suspect ours to be a copy of the an- 

 cient bend, with the addition of an Aberdeen barb. Our age, 

 however, has surpassed all others in artificial disguises to 

 lure the finny tribes, and take the conceit out of them a 

 thousand-fold faster than ever could the ancients. 



The habits of fishes to be fished for, whether by angling or 

 any other means, should be carefully studied. So also should 

 their food. 



"Fish have their various characters defined, 

 Not more by color than by mind." 



They have their times to eat and their choice of food. Thus 

 the trout will take ground bait or minnows as substantial 

 food, but for his dessert he prefers rising to the surface for 

 flies. That most fresh-w r ater fishes fast previous to important 

 rain-storms I think has become settled by the experience of 

 old anglers. Their appetite appears to be improved by a 

 shower. Most fishes seem to scent the approach of a shower, 

 and know by instinct that, with the debris carried down by 

 a rise in the stream, they will find a variety of food from 

 which to select. Pike generally bite eagerly when it rains ; 

 and both trout and salmon will rise to the fly most readily 



