Some Fishing Pretenses 



exertion or a frivolous waste of time. 

 In such circumstances we cannot be 

 charged with a surrender of inde- 

 pendence if we attempt by a frank 

 statement to deprive these ill-natured 

 critics of all excuse for attacking our 

 entire body on account of faults and 

 weaknesses for which only a small 

 minority is responsible. 



Bluntly stated, the affectations and 

 pretenses which I have in mind, and 

 which in my opinion threaten to bring 

 injury upon our noble pursuit, grow 

 out of the undue prominence and ex- 

 aggerated superiority claimed for fly- 

 casting for trout. I hasten to say for 

 myself and on behalf of all well-con- 

 ditioned fishermen that we are not in- 

 clined to disparage in the least the 

 delightful exhilaration of the sudden 

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