BROOKS, POOLS, STILL-WATERS 41 



offer many opportunities for the camera as well as the 

 rod. 



Working quietly along the little stream you will 

 sometimes flush a "partridge" and will often hear them 

 drumming. Later in the spring a woodcock will per- 

 haps get up within rod's length of you and whistle 

 away over the tops of the alders. Where deer are at 

 all common you will see their tracks along the brook 

 and, if you are at all lucky and quiet you may even 

 see the trail-makers. Incidents of this sort, with fair 

 success with the little fly-rod, will surely serve to make 

 your day on the stream a pleasant one. In such streams 

 a trout weighing half a pound is a monster, and the 

 average is considerably less than that. But sport with 

 any game fish is largely a matter of the tackle used, 

 and presumably you will use light tackle. 



The little trout of the mountain streams, unless in 

 very secluded brooks which have been fished little or 

 not at all, are not in the least foolish or 

 auca ea uneducated. Anglers are wont to as- 

 sociate extreme sophistication with the 

 two-pounders of the big rivers. When considering the 

 typical mountain trout it is well to remember that with 

 them size is small indication of age or degree of educa- 

 tion. The size of brook trout is a matter of range ex- 

 tent and food supply, and the trout of the little brooks 

 of the hill country are small because the food supply is 

 limited, the "swim" is limited, and the little fellows 

 have to work hard for a living. So the eight-incher of 

 the narrow, shallow, and rapid mountain stream may 

 be as highly educated as the two-pound brown trout 



