CHAPTER XVI 



HOOKING THE TROUT 



"GiVE plenty of time for the fish to swallow the 

 hook," says 0. W. Smith, in Outdoor Life (December, 

 1914), addressing the croppie (strawberry bass) 

 Angler. 



It is not un-anglerlike to catch any fish hooked 

 beyond the lips? Angling has its gentle qualities as 

 well as its practical ends. It's different in mere fishing. 

 I don't believe any Angler would purposely hook his 

 game otherwise than in the lip a nerveless center 

 where there is no pain though the plain fisherman 

 may resort to any method in his pursuit. 



I remember some years ago when two fishermen 

 caught the same fish (a large fluke), one hook being 

 in the fish's mouth and the other hook on the inside 

 of the fish's stomach, it was decided after a long dis- 

 cussion that the fish really belonged to the man whose 

 hook held to the mouth; the swallowed hook was 

 judged as illegitimate. 



Fishes hooked in the mouth do not suffer any pain. 

 I've recaught many a once-lost specimen with my snell 

 in its lip; these in both fresh water and salt water. 

 Incidents of this character furnish one of the many 

 proofs that mouth-hooking thefish is perfectly humane. 

 Two friends witnessed my catch (July n, 1915) of a 

 Long Island two-and-one-quarter-pound brook trout 



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