NEW ARTIFICIAL NATURE LURES 



tained in the greatest abundance, and that they 

 grow more quickly, attaining greater size, in such 

 localities. 



If you take two six-inch trout in the spring, place 

 one in a mountain brook where food is always lim- 

 ited, and the other in a large river where various 

 kinds of food are usually plentiful, by fall the river 

 trout will have gained half a pound, while the trout 

 in the brook gains but an ounce. It is precisely the 

 same as fattening hogs and feeding up chickens for 

 market. 



If you feed a trout upon artificial food — liver, 

 chopped meats, etc. — the effect is apparent in its 

 lack of gamy resistance during capture on fly or 

 bait, and in the taste of its flesh when consumed as 

 food for man. It is as "water unto wine," com- 

 pared with the wild trout fed by nature's bounty. 



The natural food of game fishes is quite varied, 

 and cannot be propagated by artificial means. If 

 the supply of food be much curtailed, game fish 

 move — if they can — to new pastures ; or, when con- 

 fined to a given space, they will eat each other. 

 They are very acute in their search and capture of 

 food, and never seem to be satiated or satisfied. 

 Both trout and bluefish, gorged nearly to suffoca- 

 tion, readily respond to a lure. 



The natural food of fresh-water game fishes, val- 

 uable according to the order named, are : insects that 

 fly above and on the water ; their larva?, that live and 



130 



