BROOK TROUT AND FLY-CASTER 3 



mechanical. However, in the skilful handling of fine 

 tackle lies a large part of the angler's enjoyment. 



I am inclined to believe that fly-fishing has its chief 

 and most easily defined excuse in the existence of a cer- 

 tain game fish Salvelinus fontinalis, the 

 The Brook spec ki e d brook trout. Here, indeed, is 



Trout. something tangible, a thing which may 

 be taken in the hand first catch your trout and looked 

 upon. No one seeing a freshly caught brook trout 

 would say that it was other than a thing of beauty. Its 

 delicate, vari-colored resplendency is not equaled by any 

 living thing. The tarpon Silver King of Southern 

 waters the Atlantic and Pacific salmons, the ouana- 

 niche and land-locked salmon, and the grayling com- 

 prise practically all the other game fishes, excepting 

 the various other forms of brook trout, which may be 

 said to possess both beauty of form and coloration. 



It cannot be denied that these fish are justifiably 

 praised, but it is generally conceded that the red-spotted 

 brook trout has nothing to fear from their competition. 

 Of the Western trout, the rainbows, cutthroats, and 

 steelheads, the rainbow, Salmo irideus, is the Eastern 

 brook trout's nearest competitor and that is praise 

 enough for the rainbow. So here is one good reason, at 

 least, why fly-fishing for trout is considered by many the 

 very best of all sports. 



But, after all, the lure of the trout pools is a thing 

 intangible, elusive, which cannot be crystallized into so 

 many words, or geometrically demonstrated. If you 

 would solve its mysteries, would truly fathom the fas- 

 cination of "the reek of the split-bamboo," you must 



