108 TROUT LORE 



One must catch Superior in sunny humor and 

 that isn't often; generally it is in the very early 

 morning or as evening is closing in on a brilliant 

 day. These reefs are everywhere along the whole 

 Superior coast. They mark the entrance to bay 

 or cove or channel between islands. They may 

 be near some little river's mouth, or they may 

 stand out stark and isolated, a sinister splotch 

 of snow, a white signal of great peril upon the 

 green of the deep water, with the brown rocks 

 of the shore completing the picture of triumphant 

 wilderness. The only essentials for trout are 

 that the water.be comparatively shallow, ten feet 

 at the most; and that the bottom the size 

 and shape and arrangement of the rocks 

 on the lake floor offer feeding places for trout. 

 That is known generally as a 'likely' reef 

 and no other characterization is at all illumi- 

 nating nor adequate. We have caught trout 

 in water that was green in depth-color, bath- 

 ing rocks on shore that towered up two hun- 

 dred feet. And we have caught them five 

 miles from the nearest river-mouth. And they 

 are brook trout, fontinalis; a little less bril- 

 liantly colored, perhaps, and a little, very little, 

 more silvery, but fantinalis just the same. On 

 the South Shore they are called 'coasters' ; and it 



