8o THe Determined Angler 



many know the number of rises they have and when? 

 How many know the number of trout that rise and 

 strike and are hooked and landed? The answer is 

 'Few indeed*; and those who hazard a guess are 

 usually far from the facts. 



"The average fly-fishing Angler casts his fly or 

 flies, on most waters, from five to seven times a minute 

 and the less experienced Angler from seven to ten 

 times. With the more experienced Angler this means 

 that he casts from 300 to 420 times in an hour and in 

 five hours from 1500 to 2100 times. Let us take the 

 lesser number as a basis of reasoning; in one hour, if 

 once in thirty casts a trout rose, struck, and was 

 hooked when the fly first alighted upon the water, 

 the Angler's creel would be richer by ten fish and in 

 five hours by fifty fish. Then to this number should 

 be added the trout that rise, strike, and are hooked 

 after the fly has alighted upon the water and has been 

 fished or played by the Angler. Would it not be a fair 

 proposition to say that at least as many trout would 

 be caught under the latter circumstances as the 

 former? To my mind it would. The Angler then 

 would have creeled one hundred fish in five hours. 

 As some trout, even with the most expert of Anglers, 

 are bound to be lost let us be liberal and place the 

 loss at fifty per cent., thus making the Angler's net 

 catch fifty instead of one hundred fish. Think this 

 over and think over what your experience has been, 

 day after day and season after season, and ask your- 

 self if a catch of this size is not very unusual on the 

 best of trout fishing waters. So far as my own ex- 

 perience goes it certainly is most unusual, and I fish 

 on many fine waters each year and for at least one 

 hundred days. 



