THE ANGLER'S GUIDE 73 



gentle requirements and the "beautiful scenery of nature" 

 deserve special treatment, because, as in fly-fishing for 

 salmon (salmo salar), the very top notch of all forms of 

 angling, the play, the player, the scenes and the accessories 

 are sufficiently different to confound the reader I am 

 mainly measuring to amuse with these particular lines. 



Small stream fly-fishing for brook trout belongs in a 

 class just between fly-fishing for the brook trout of broader 

 waters, the lakes and ponds, and fly-fishing for salmon in 

 the lordly rivers of Maine and Canada. 



The brook trout is angled for in the spring and summer, 

 principally with the artificial fly, and, by the chivalric an- 

 gler, only with the artificial fly, though many greedy fisher- 

 men of trifling experience and wholly deprived of the true 

 spirit of angling in that they fish for the fish alone and 

 judge their day and play solely by the size of their catch 

 contrive to convince us that the live lure is equally honor- 

 able, notwithstanding that the cruel, clumsy, uncleanly, 

 unfair, wasteful practice of live-bait trout fishing is con- 

 demned by every truly gentle disciple and practical 

 authority. 



Most advocates of live-bait trout fishing, who would have 

 us believe that their method is entitled to recognition in 

 the same category with fly-fishing, proudly proclaim that 

 this should be because they "can catch more fish with the 

 worm or minnow than the angler can catch with his fly." 



If this reasoning is to settle the debate, if killing and 

 quantity compose the angler's axiom, why not resort to 

 still more productive means dynamite, or net the stream 

 instead of gently fishing it? 



No, the trout fly-fisherman abhors trout bait-fishing for 

 the same reason the wing shot prefers his appropriate arm 

 to a cannon; the yachtsman, his gentle craft to a man-o'- 

 war; the horseman, his trained mount to a locomotive; the 

 archer, his arrow instead of a harpoon; and so I might go 

 on in similes that would burlesque every form of recreative 

 amusement in the world. 



The brook trout breeds in the autumn, favors eddies, 

 riffles, pools, and deep spots under the banks of the stream, 

 and near rocks and fallen trees, and feeds on flies, small 

 fish, worms and other small life forms. 



Its shape, weight, size and color are influenced by its 

 food, its age, its activity, its habitat, and its habits. Its 

 color corresponds to the color of the water bottom, and 

 will change as the water bottom changes. If removed to 

 a new water, where the bottom color is different from the 

 bottom color of its first abode lighter or darker, as the 

 case may be it will gradually grow to a corresponding 

 shade, blending with its new habitat just as its colors suited 

 the stones and grasses and earthy materials of its native 

 domain. 



In weight, the brook trout ranges up to ten pounds in 

 large waters. There is a record of one weighing eleven 

 pounds. This specimen was taken in Northwestern Maine. 



