CASTS AT RANDOM 157 



angler, however, during the first days of the season, will 

 try out such places very thoroughly, for it is quite pos- 

 sible that the annual change in stream conditions may 

 result in trout being found there. I remember very 

 well such an occurrence. A trout stream that I have 

 fished a great many times was always troutless in its 

 lower waters, despite the fact that here the stream, as 

 far as one could judge, was exactly suited to the fish. 

 There were several short rapids leading into fine pools, 

 many large, submerged boulders just right for trout to 

 hide around and beneath, and the banks were thickly 

 grown to pines. Yet for several seasons I fished this 

 water from time to time without even a rise. The 

 trout were not there. But the following season the 

 first day over this same water put a dozen good trout 

 in the basket, and to date the fishing there is fairly 

 reliable. Something had occurred to bring in the 

 trout; just what, it would be difficult to determine. 



The wideawake angler, admitting for the purpose of 

 contrast that the contemplative angler exists outside 

 the pages of angling literature, a matter of some doubt, 

 may not become an authority on the beauties of Nature 

 in the abstract, but he learns a good bit about certain 

 special phases of nature fish, for instance. Some one 

 has said that the best time to observe nature is when the 

 fish aren't biting. This is undoubtedly true, but it is 

 also an admission of inability to make the fish bite. 

 That this is a pretty difficult thing, at times impossible, 

 may be true, but, nevertheless, your hardworking, 

 wideawake angler works hardest and is most wideawake 

 when it is a case of making the trout rise or an empty 



