FISHING A WADEABLE STREAM 173 



three years and experimented with short rod and 

 artificial lures, the results of which are largely set 

 down in this chapter. Be it said, however, that 

 river is the only stream I have found in Northern 

 United States offering ideal conditions for wading, 

 though I have no doubt that it could be duplicated in 

 many localities. (See note at close of chapter.) The 

 findings of other anglers may not agree with mine, 

 for as I have often pointed out, fishing conditions 

 are not the same upon any two streams. 



I do not know why some anglers seem to think 

 that a boat is essential to bass fishing with the short 

 rod and artificial lures. Again and again I have 

 proven that bass can be taken successfully from the 

 banks of rivers and lakes, though I am free to con- 

 fess that boat-fishing is easier and generally more 

 fruitful. However, it remains for me to say that 

 lure casting along a wadeable stream is the very 

 poetry of sport with the short rod. In fishing a 

 shallow stream one can not fail of being impressed 

 with his environment. As an Irish friend of mine 

 has rather wittily put it, "There is more environment 

 to a river than to a lake." You wade along, the 

 wooded banks or broad fields forever passing to the 

 rear, but never gone. Every bend of the stream dis- 

 closes new vistas, ever changing, each more surpass- 

 ingly beautiful than the last; even as they offer 

 untried pools, which may shelter the dreamed of 

 monster or present problems the solving of which 



