132 TROUT LORE 



XIX we discussed the spinners, which can be 

 cast with the average fly-rod almost as easily as 

 can flies, so small are they. In this brief chap- 

 ter I do not propose spending any time with 

 either, respectfully referring my readers to Chap- 

 ters XIX and XVI for my opinions. How- 

 ever, in recent years there has come into being 

 a class of trout lures, produced by trout fisher- 

 men for use with fly-rods ; lures that when prop- 

 erly used under propitious conditions fill the 

 creel. I am not acquainted with all the angler's 

 whims which have crystallized in minute lures, 

 for every year new ones are produced; but with 

 a few I have experimented and have found them 

 good. 



Here enters the old, old question of legitimacy. 

 Can we use them without doing violence to our 

 angler's conscience? Perhaps, as I have long 

 suspected, I am something of a Philistine, there- 

 fore possessed of a biased judgment; but I can- 

 not see how a man violates the ethics of true 

 sport when he rightly employs such lures, so dap- 

 per, light and attractive are they, withal so much 

 skill is required on the part of the rodster rightly 

 to present them. Granted I prefer artificial 

 flies, even as I prefer artificial flies to bait; 

 but if, when flies fail as they sometimes do 



