CATCHING THE WILY 

 SEA-TROUT 



CHAPTER I 



THE SEA-TROUT 



MUCH has been written concerning the salmon, while 

 the dainty " brownie " has received an amplitude 

 of attention both in books and in the angling periodicals, 

 but that grand fighting fish, the wily sea-trout, has 

 escaped with only a modicum of notice. 



When the white-tipped rollers thunder on the beach, 

 to the accompaniment of the sharp cries of the gulls, he 

 who prospects from the sea-shore accepts with genuine 

 satisfaction the " flats " which fall to his lures, but he 

 hopes earnestly that a spirited bass will be his next 

 victim. Similarly, when the leaves are past the prime 

 of summer green and the cuckoo calls no more, most 

 trouters are content to collect nice baskets of fish, but 

 many yearn for the day when the tug of a sea-trout will 

 be felt. 



Even the salmon fisher, who longs to gaff a forty 

 pounder, is not averse from sampling a fresh-run sea- 

 trout ; yet the migratory trout, to give it its legal name 

 in conformity with the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries 

 Act, is often an " also ran " according to the publicity 

 which it receives in some districts, and frequently it does 

 not gain the kudos which is due to its status. 



Probably the reason for this comparative difference in 

 treatment is owing to the fact that in trout waters the 



