20 THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



the streams, trout secrete themselves when not feeding. 

 A casual observer, after a careful and prolonged inspec- 

 tion along its banks, may often affirm that a length 

 upon a noted trout stream is wholly devoid of fish, 

 when the subsequent appearance of surface food will 

 prove the water to be alive with them, and they may as 

 suddenly disappear when the insects leave the water's 

 surface to secrete themselves before an impending atmos- 

 pheric change. In some districts trout spawn in winter, 

 in others in October and November, or in December, 

 and elsewhere in January and in February, or in March. 

 The precise time depends also in a measure on the pre- 

 vailing state of the weather and water. In the close 

 season, trout leave the larger streams, ascending the 

 brooks and rivulets, in the gravelly bottoms of which 

 they deposit their spawn. When this operation is ef- 

 fected, they disperse to their wonted haunts, the tails of 

 currents, lying for the most part above and below pools 

 and slow running deeps, behind any impediment to the 

 running water, such as thick piles and sunken timber. 

 As they get into condition they move to stronger water, 

 occasionally for this purpose ascending brooks whose 

 waters may be turbulent and strong to their very source. 

 Here they linger by the edges of streams that flow into 

 the throats of the pools, and at this period rise boldly 

 and unsuspectingly for a time, and can then be allured 

 by the novice in a comparatively easy manner. After 

 the lapse of a few short weeks, as the water and weather 

 become clearer and brighter, the trout grow cautious, 

 where heavily fished over, they having now entirely re- 

 covered their customary vigor, and with it their beauty 

 of form and color. They now take up their old posi- 

 tions, vacated prior to the commencement of the spawn- 

 ing season. These are chosen as vantage ground for 

 food, the largest fish occupying the best feeding ground; 

 and when one of these has been extracted, the next best 



