190 FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



They could be distinguished at a glance ; the individ- 

 uals of any school were as like as peas in color and size, 

 and we never saw them except on a summer flood. 

 The natives called them river trout. They came in 

 schools of one hundred to five times as many, just as 

 the flood was subsiding, and they had a way of halting 

 to rest at the deep pools and spring-holes along their 

 route. Lucky was the angler who could find them at 

 rest in a deep pool, under a scooped out bank, or at the 

 foot of a rushing cascade. At such times they seemed 

 to lose their usual shyness, and would take the fly or 

 worm indifferently, until their numbers were reduced 

 more than one-half. To "meet them on the June 

 rise " was the ardent desire of every angler who fished 

 the streams which they were accustomed to ascend. 

 These streams were not numerous. The First, Second, 

 and Third Forks of Pine Creek, with the Otter, com- 

 prised the list so far as I know. And no man could be 

 certain of striking a school at any time ; it depended 

 somewhat on judgment, but more on luck. Two or 

 three times I tried it on the Otter and missed ; while a 

 friend who had the pluck and muscle to make a ten-mile 

 tramp over the mountain to Second Fork took forty 

 pounds of fine trout from a single school. It was a hog- 

 gish thing to do ; but he was a native and knew no 

 reason for letting up. 



At length my white day came around. There was a 

 fierce rain for three days, and the raging waters took 

 mills, fences and lumber down stream in a way to be 



