CHAPTER XIV. 



Fishing For Trout and Salmon. 



F all the North American game fishes the 

 trouts are the most widely scattered and 

 the most sought by those who go away 

 from home to fish. In many ways these 

 fish are far in the lead of all others, 

 being the most active of all fish, good fighters, 

 rising well to an artificial fly, a fine food fish, 

 and the most beautiful fish that swim. I am 

 speaking of the trouts collectively, for be it 

 known, there are somewhere between thirty and forty species, 

 including the introduced trouts in the United States and 

 Canada. They, that is one species or other, are found all 

 over the western mountain country, practically all of Canada, 

 and all of the eastern and southern states where cool, rapid 

 streams are found. These trouts are divided into two groups, 

 i. e., the charrs and the salmon trouts. The latter are found 

 naturally only in the West and the former, with the ex- 

 ception of the Dolly Varden, only in the East and North. 

 But it is not the purpose of this work to go into a description 

 and classification of each and every species I will leave 

 that to naturalists what we are most interested in is the 

 habits of th^ fish and the way to catch them. 



Trout are found only in cool, fresh, swift-flowing streams, 

 especially our native fishes of this order, but some of the im- 

 ported ones will live in warmer water, providing it is rapid. 

 Most important of all the trouts is our eastern brook 

 trout, a charr, because it is nearer home to the largest num- 

 ber of anglers and because of its wide distribution through- 



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