68 The Angler's Secret 



You cannot well play billiards with 

 footballs, nor can you correctly enjoy 

 checkers with frying-pans. There is a 

 proper and improper way to do every- 

 thing. To say there is more sport in 

 catching great striped bass than there is 

 in creeling brook trout because the striped 

 bass is the larger fish of the two is Kke 

 saying there is more sport in pitching 

 quoits than in playing dominoes because 

 the quoit is larger than the domino. 



There is exhilaration in every pastime 

 if it is performed according to the recog- 

 nized rules and with befitting accoutre- 

 ments. 



Using a tarpon rod instead of a trout 

 rod in brook-trout angling must be very 

 dull play, and certainly as unremunerative 

 in the catch as in the sport ; but to take 

 brook trout with a three-ounce, four- 

 ounce, or five-ounce rod and the lightest 

 possible reel, line, and leader, with arti- 

 ficial flies, is one of the most charming, 

 gentlemanly, satisfying, cleanly, health- 



