PREFACE 



_" Don't give up if you don't catch fish; the unsuccessful trip 

 should whet your appetite to try again." GROVER CLEVELAND. 



A PREFACE is either an excuse or an explanation, or 

 both. The Brook Trout needs no excuse, and it is 

 fully explained in the general text of this volume. Nor 

 does the Angler, be he Determined or otherwise, need 

 any excuse, because "our Saviour chose simple fisher- 

 men ... St. Peter, St. John, St. Andrew, and St. 

 James, whom he inspired, and He never reproved 

 these for their employment or calling" (Izaak Walton, 

 The Compleat Angler, 1653). And the Angler the 

 man needs no explanation, though it seems ever 

 necessary to define the word. 



Webster, himself a profound Angler, must have been 

 unconscious of his gentle bearing, for his definition 

 of "angle" is simply: "to fish," and every Angler 

 knows that merely to fish to go forth indifferent of 

 correct (humane) tackle, the legal season, and ethical 

 methods in the pursuit is not the way of the Angler. 



I like the explanation of the word by Genio C. Scott : 

 "Angling, a special kind of fishing." 



The inspired landscape genius and the kalsominer 

 who shellacs the artist's studio are both painters; so, 

 the gentle Angler with perfect tackle and the mere 

 hand-line fish taker are both fishermen. 



The Angler is the highest order of fisherman, 



