TROUT HABITS; LURES AND USE 



tion under the prevailing conditions of the 

 water, season, and weather. He knows whether 

 . the fish are rising or deep feeding, where are the 

 reefs and bars or other special feeding places, 

 and he also knows the holes, alongside of rocks 

 or logs or under the bank or among tree roots, 

 where the particularly big ones lie. Not un- 

 commonly they will lie in the same place year, 

 after year, and a good spot vacated by one fish 

 will soon be occupied by another. Again, from 

 changes due to freshets or to some other cause, 

 the whole aspect and contour of the shore of a 

 stream or lake will be completely changed at 

 some particular spot. Or our native guide 

 knows where the "big fellows" are because he 

 has seen them feeding there, and the whole 

 course of the creek is dotted for him with land- 

 or rather, water-marks of likely places where 

 previously he has raised fish but has failed to 

 land them; he may even have netted them and 

 then returned them to the water. This is the 

 explanation of the seemingly occult performance 

 of a "Herm" Christian or a "Bill" or a "Hank" 

 or "Jim" Someotherbody, when he says non- 

 chalantly: "Boys, watch me step right across 

 thar and pull out a good one right by that 

 log," and straightway proceeds to do so, at the 

 first cast. Perhaps it was only the previous 

 day that he "riz" him at that identical spot, and 

 that just prior to venturing the above remark 

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