BEOWN WATEES 



Not speaking absolutely (as who 

 would dare to do on such a subject 1 ?), it 

 may be said that trout are ready to feed 

 where and when experience tells them 

 food is to be had, if nothing hints that 

 danger is afoot. The fisherman himself 

 they do not fear, but his movements 

 probably suggest the presence of their 

 known enemies of the air or the land, 

 ospreys, gulls, loons, kingfishers, bear, 

 otter, pekan. There is a discoverable 

 cause for their place and disposition at 

 any time, a cause based upon the facts 

 of their existence, but the difficulty is to 

 find and follow the clue. 



Sometimes the process of reasoning, 

 or instinct if you prefer it, seems plain 

 enough ; for example, every spring trout 

 re-educate themselves, and rather slow- 

 ly, to the taking of food on the surface. 

 It is a week or more after the hatch 

 begins before there is anything like a 

 free rise at flies or their imitations. As 

 though remembering the icy barrier 



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