46 THe Determined Angler 



and caught nothing; some Anglers would have gone 

 over it once in twenty-five minutes and taken a half- 

 dozen fish. I had the day to myself; I had nowhere 

 else ttf go; I was out for sport, recreation, and study, 

 not fish, for I am a lover of nature in general, and so 

 I took three hours at the play, and fished and observed 

 inch by inch like a mink, the king of trouters. 



I say I had two hundred and fifteen strikes, out of 

 which I killed eighteen trout, and you are surprised. 

 You think you could have done better, much better, 

 but I know you could not you could not have done as 

 well as I did and I wish that I could put you to a test. 

 I have seen a fontinalis rise to a small coachman 

 twenty-six times, snapping apparently at the feather 

 each time, but never allowing himself to be hooked 

 nor hooking himself. He was playing. He was a 

 young trout, but an educated one, and well knew 

 there was no danger if he kept his wits about him. 

 I have witnesses to this performance who will sub- 

 stantiate my story, and I can easily further prove the 

 truthfulness of the statement by taking you to a 

 stream where a similar performance may be enacted. 

 And I have seen an uneducated trout rise and snap at a 

 fly without taking it. The first one rose in play, this 

 one in curiosity and there are trout that will rise in 

 anger. All of them may know the bait is not food. It 

 is a mistake to think that all brook trout will spurt 

 from a fly the very second they discover it is not real 

 food, as it is an error to believe that all brook trout 

 will take the fly when they know it is the living thing. 

 All trout are not alike; they vary in their tastes and 

 antics as they do in color and size. Mind you, I speak 

 only of one species here the true brook trout, Salve- 

 linus fontinalis, and thus the material should be in- 



