CHAPTER X 



TROUT IN THE NIGHT-TIME 



THERE is something about the unusual that 

 appeals to the normal man. Some one has said 

 that the thing we cannot understand we worship, 

 a statement which must be taken in a Pick- 

 wickian sense ; but be that as it may, the angler's 

 bump of curiosity is well developed: he is always 

 on the lookout for a new method of angling, a 

 new experience, or an odd bit of tackle. The 

 lure of night fishing is the lure of the mysterious. 

 There is something about a trout-stream after ' 

 the sun has set and the dark shadows have crept 

 stealthily in from the East, that tickles our im- 

 agination and gratifies our love of the unusual. 

 The world becomes unbelievably large, even a 

 small stream reaching away and away into in- 

 finity. Perhaps the reader will think this ex- 

 travagant language, but let him experiment with 

 even an inconsequential trout stream and he will 

 discover some things undreamt of in a fisher- 

 man's philosophy. As will hereinafter appear, 

 a night fisherman must possess a love of poesy, a 



