198 TROUT LORE 



becomes possessed of the requisite skill, he is 

 never satisfied until he has reduced the weight 

 of his paraphernalia to the least fraction of an 

 ounce. The man who has never played a two- 

 pound rainbow on a four-ounce rod, say, does 

 not know the thrill of angling. Naturally such 

 rods are not adaptable to all sorts of angling, but 

 for certain fishing they are the only tools. With 

 a three-ounce fly-rod, perch fishing, even angling 

 for "pumpkin seeds," becomes a real and en- 

 trancing sport. 



Now we turn our attention to big fish, for some 

 have erroneously thought that the hope of their 

 capture is the Will-o'-the-wisp chased by the en- 

 thusiastic trout fisherman. The lure of big fish 

 is very real and very insistent. The knowledge 

 that the lake or stream undoubtedly shelters 

 larger fish than any that has yet been taken ever 

 bids us persevere. "Bill Jones brought home a 

 two-pound trout yesterday ; may I not win a two- 

 and-a-half pounder to-day?" What angler has 

 not set out at dawn saying to himself something 

 like that ? No true fisherman approaches a deep 

 pool, a likely looking water, without a thrill of 

 expectancy; perhaps he has cast his flies upon 

 the same water hundreds of times without avail, 

 even without taking a fish, yet with hope he es- 



