PONTINALIS 



hand was resisted until the time that 

 custom allows in the case of a pike had 

 expired ; then the bait had been gorged, 

 and the fish was played and landed. 



Great trout there are, indeed, that 

 scorn every fly at all times, and in some 

 waters other lures must be used. Even 

 the Nepigon yields its best fish only to 

 the spinner or artificial minnow. Yet, 

 as you shall presently see, large fontina- 

 lis sometimes take the fly, and take it 

 readily. Tradition has it that some fifty 

 or sixty years ago a brook trout was 

 caught in the Rangeley Lakes, in the 

 State of Maine, which weighed thirteen 

 and a quarter pounds, but this I find it 

 impossible to verify. What appear to 

 be trustworthy records from the same 

 quarter, in the sixties, show fish of ten 

 pounds weight, but at the present day a 

 five-pounder is accounted a large trout. 



Of the Nepigon wonderful stories are 

 told, and the books of the Hudson Bay 

 post at the mouth of the river contain 



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