CHAPTER XVIII. 



TROUT FISHING DO FISH HEAR ? A MERRY 



MAKING. 



I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to 

 look upon one another next morning. [Sir Izaak Walton. 



ALMON fishing is confessedly the 

 highest department in the school 

 of angling. With very rare ex- 

 ceptions, the tact and skill neces- 

 sary for its successful practice is 

 only acquired by long experience 

 in the minor branches of the art, 

 first, in early youth, with bait, for 

 chub, perch and sunfish ; next, in 

 the transition state, with troll, for 

 bass, pickerel and muscalonge ; and lastly, when 

 the mind takes in the exciting realities and poetic 

 possibilities of the art, with fly, in streamlet, river 

 and lake. It is not until after all is attained that 

 is attainable in trout waters that salmon are sighed 

 for, and only very few who thus sigh are ever able 

 to have their longings gratified. But those whose 

 experience has been limited to bait or troll seldom 

 aspire to anything beyond the pleasant amusement 



