CHAPTER VIII 



BAIT-FISHING FOR TROUT 



I AM not going to apologize for this chapter, 

 as a great many angling writers would, for I 

 hold that under certain conditions bait-fishing 

 for trout is legitimate. Why not? It is the 

 way in which the bait is handled and not the 

 mere fact that the fisherman uses grasshoppers, 

 worms, or something else that determines whether 

 or not he is a sportsman. I can conceive of even 

 a fly-fisherman using his lures in an unsports- 

 manlike way. The dyed-in-the-wool bait-fisher- 

 man, employing light tackle, quitting when he 

 has enough, retiring from the stream with a men- 

 tal picture of God's Out-o'doors, may hold up 

 his head in any company. I once saw a fly-fish- 

 erman taking two small trout at a cast, snailing 

 them in as fast as he could clear his hooks, always 

 eager for the next opportunity; while following 

 along behind was a long-whiskered old farmer 

 with a cane pole and a box of earthworms, now 

 and then taking a fish but always throwing back 

 all but the larger ones. When I passed the dap- 



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