158 THE FINE ART OF FISHING 



creel. And herein is one of the most interesting phases 

 of fishing. A good trout taken under difficulties, teased 

 to the fly when most disdainful of it, is worth a dozen 

 fool fish crazy for the fly to such an extent that one 

 has only to offer the cast to have it accepted. Only the 

 enthusiast, however, the true-blue, strenuous fly-caster, 

 will long continue to hammer away at water to all 

 intents and purposes trout-void. 



A constitutional inability to quit, when every trout 

 added to the score must be a trout earned by the hard- 

 est kind of work and the exercise of infinite patience 

 and skill, is the hall-mark of the genuine fly-fisherman. 

 To such a man continued ill success serves merely as 

 an incentive to further effort. He seeks to discover 

 just what are the conditions which are causing the trout 

 to stay down. Arriving at some conclusion regarding 

 this, he endeavors to meet the situation in the selection, 

 arrangement, or use of his tackle. If the results show 

 that his theory is wrong it is simply a case of trying 

 another method. And a good many times he eventually 

 hits upon the proper thing and then . 



On the other hand we all know the "quitter." He is 

 anxious to be known among men as an "ardent angler," 

 an "enthusiast." He talks fish and fishing to infinity 

 and upon microscopic provocation. But on the stream 

 a little hard luck quickly shows his class. His conver- 

 sation waxes loud and rather more than impolitely em- 

 phatic. He talks about smashing the rod "might just 

 as well fish in a frog pond" and thrashes about in the 

 stream like a pointer dog in a mud-wallow. Finally he 

 quits entirely whereupon there is much joy among his 



