TROUT FISHING. 317 



and we concluded to row down to Cold Brook, seven 

 miles distant, and try the trout. This is a cold stream 

 that empties into the Saranac river, three miles from the 

 outlet. It is full of trout, and, when the weather and 

 water are favorable, a single fisherman will take out 

 thirty or forty pounds in almost as many minutes. But 

 the heavy rains had so swollen the streams and made 

 them turbid that it was almost impossible to make the 

 fish rise to a fly. Martin and I paddled up stream and 

 succeeded, with great effort, in taking some two or three 

 dozen. I care not how plenty the trout, are, nor how 

 unmolested they have been, you cannot take them in a 

 freshet. Now and then one can be caught with a white 

 bait, but the success does not pay for the trouble. In 

 the first place, the high water scatters the fish, and they 

 are no longer in their accustomed pools, but roaming 

 around, feeding in places where you never look for 

 them. In the second place, the sudden rills that come 

 tumbling in from every side bring with them a large 

 amount of food in the shape of worms and bugs, and 

 other insects, so that the fish soon become gorged and 

 are not easily tempted by a bait. This state of the 

 water is especially bad for fly-fishing, for the trout are 

 then feeding on ground-bait, and not seeking for flies, 



