276 CRUISI^GS IN THE CASCADES 



Among them was one old nine-spot which turned the 

 scales at two and a quarter pounds after having been 

 out of the water over two hours. He measured 

 seventeen and a half inches in length. 



The captain told me of a certain deep hole where 

 he said an old pioneer made his headquarters, who 

 had taken off two hooks and leaders for him on two 

 different days during the summer. When I reached 

 the hole I recognized it in a moment by the captain's 

 description. It was in a short bend or angle of the 

 creek. On the opposite side from where I stood, and 

 on the lower angle of the square, the channel had 

 cut a deep hole under an overhanging bank, which 

 was covered with willows. These drooped over the 

 water and shaded it nicely. There was a slight 

 eddy there and the surface of the water was flecked 

 with bits of white foam which came from the rapids 

 just above. What a paradise for a wary old trout ! 



I stopped about forty feet above the hole and put 

 on one of the largest hoppers in my box; then I 

 reeled out ten or fifteen feet of line and cast into 

 the foot of the rapid. As the current straightened 

 out my line 1 reeled off more of it and still more until 

 it floated gently and gracefully down into the dark 

 eddy, and when within two feet of the edge of the 

 bank there was a whirl, a surge, a break in the 

 water, as if a full-grown beaver had been suddenly 

 frightened from his Run bath on the surface and had 

 started for the bottom. I saw a long, broad gleam 

 of silvery white, my line cut through the water, and 

 the old-timer started for his bed under the bank. 



I struck at the proper instant, and, bending my 

 little split bamboo almost double, brought him 



