Some Truths about Trouting 119 



But, perhaps fortunately, we are not all scientific, 

 hence a few hints to the raw enthusiast may prove 

 useful. In the first place, let him dismiss the notion 

 that all, or for that matter one-eighth, of our trout 

 waters offer unlimited facilities for all sorts of long- 

 distance casting, for they do not. For artistic 

 fly-fishing one needs must have plenty of space 

 behind as well as in front, for the back-cast is the 

 real difficulty. Here and there, in forest lakes, are 

 reefs and shallows where one may wade and find 

 plenty of room, but as a rule some craft, or raft, is 

 necessary to enable one to get away from the shore. 

 On the stream one finds room for action by wading 

 up or down. This owing to the fact that compara- 

 tively few streams can be properly fished from the 

 banks. Hence, stream fishing means wading, which 

 demands a proper equipment, unless the fisher be one 

 of that foolish-fond brigade who believe that a reck- 

 less defiance of cold water denotes the proper spirit. 



But the wise man knows that long-continued 

 wading and getting wet are bad for the human 

 machine that what may be laughed at to-day may 

 be heard from later on, when the rich sporting blood 

 has cooled a bit. It is all very fine to depend upon 

 that broken reed, the flask, or that much-abused and 

 seldom-understood thing, one's constitution. Both 

 fail at times. A distillery couldn't remedy some of 

 the possible damages due to foolish exposure, while 

 the Constitution of the United States would be no 

 guarantee against rheumatism or other evils. That 

 a few men have been wet time and again for hours 

 at a stretch is no proof that you can stand the 

 same ordeal, and the trouble is that you have to do 



