CHAPTER XVII 



TROUT AND THE NEW ARTIFICIAL LURES 



FOR many years certain simple lures have been 

 used to entice the speckled beauties from their 

 hiding-place when bait and artificial flies proved 

 unavailing. Probably spinners were first em- 

 ployed, losing size with the passing of the years 

 until to-day they can be had small enough and 

 light enough to cast well with the daintiest fly- 

 rod, and meet the whims of the most fastidious 

 angler. Then came "Devon minnows," "quill 

 minnows," and multitudinous rubber baits, from 

 life-like mice down to house flies, bees, and the 

 like. I had little success with any of those lures 

 save the quill minnow; that was light enough 

 and attractive enough to be used with a fly-rod. 

 Somehow the many bugs and bees I never found 

 very successful, even worth using; but not so the 

 minnow-like lures : under certain conditions they 

 will take trout. In the last chapter we studied 

 those heavy lures which should be handled with a 

 casting rod, or let alone, for they will wreck 

 any fly-rod worthy the name; and in Chapter 



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