10 ROD 6- CREEL 



even had a bite ! And yet how far a fisherman really is from 

 being either a fool or a lunatic. It is the other way about, the 

 man who stays in town when he could be out in the country 

 fishing, at peace with himself and the world, and getting fresh 

 air and exercise, who goes instead to moving picture shows, or 

 plays cards in stuffy rooms. This is the man who is the lunatic ; 

 he is not only wasting his time, but ruining his health; whereas 

 the fisherman is improved both morally and physically by his 

 outing, even if he returns with an empty basket and nothing but 

 long yarns of the wonderful fish he "just missed catching 

 through bad luck,'' stories which nobody believes, but which 

 do no harm and the teller derives great pleasure in the telling. 



British Columbia has long been famous for its variety of 

 sport. As for fishing, even if it can be equalled, it certainly 

 cannot be beaten in any other part of the world and yet, with 

 the exception of a few streams and lakes that are easy of 

 access, most of its waters have been almost untouched by dis- 

 ciples of Isaac Walton. Our Province has an area some 700 

 miles long by 400 miles wide, and the whole of this area is 

 divided by a network of ri\ r ers, streams and lakes in which are 

 sporting fish of some kind, either salmon, trout or grayling, and 

 in addition, pike in some of the northern lakes, bass in a few 

 places in the south. In many of the more isolated waters the 

 fish are so numerous and uneducated that they will rise at 

 anything thrown at them and there is little sport in catching 

 them. But in any waters that are easy of access they have 

 become so educated that the man or woman who wishes to 

 return with a w T ell-filled creel must not only go out properly 

 equipped, but must be more or less expert in the ' gentle art.' 



If one goes on a holiday to a stream anywhere near a town 

 you will see fishermen, and women too, by the score, and if you 

 make it your business to watch them, whereby you will derive 

 much pleasure, a great deal of amusement and sometimes some 

 knowledge, you will discover that only about one out of ten 

 has sufficient knowledge and is properly equipped to catch any- 

 thing except small trout with worms or salmon eggs, sometimes 

 even with a small spinner. One spring day I watched twenty- 

 two men at the same time trying to fish the famous "Davidson's 

 pool" in the Lillooet. Steelheads had been running well a short 

 time previously, but that day the water had fallen so low as to 

 be almost hopeless, so low you could see the bottom except in 

 the very deepest part of the pool. And yet these twenty-two 

 stayed there steadily fishing, some with minnows, others with 

 prawns and baits of every conceivable sort. They were so 

 crowded they could hardly cast on a pool just a nice size for 

 two men to fish. You could, by standing upon the high bank, 

 see most of the baits in the water, and you could also see that 

 any fish that might have been there had long since been driven 



