BROOKS, POOLS, STILL-WATERS 45 



last resort in the worst and most brushy places. Move 

 slowly and quietly, keep as far back from the brook 

 as possible without using too long a line and thus 

 inviting disaster, and use deliberation in the choice of 

 methods for the various little pools, falls, and riffles. 

 The first cast is the one that counts. 



When brush fishing a good point to remember is 

 not to strike upward but backward or toward you. 

 If you strike upward a miss always means a hang-up, 

 but if you strike by quickly moving the rod toward 

 you and keeping it low down, this will happen far less 

 frequently. An effective method is to strike not with 

 the rod but by quickly pulling in the line through the 

 guides with the left hand. The two-handed fly-caster 

 who habitually uses the slack-line cast becomes very 

 expert at striking small trout in brushy streams in this 

 manner. 



As a general thing you will not often find trout 

 much over a quarter of a pound in the average small 



mountain stream; but conditions vary 

 Exceptional and occaslona i ly you will take or see 



Streams. t ... 



taken trout weighing a pound or 



more. Many small brooks, although not very wide, 

 may be comparatively deep. Those flowing through 

 meadow lands and with sandy or muddy bottoms are 

 apt to be of this sort; possibly the brook may not be 

 over six feet wide, but there will be many places where 

 the depth is from three to five feet with fine trout 

 shelters hollowed out beneath the banks. 



There is a brook of this sort, well-known to the 

 writer, which flows partly in Connecticut and partly 



