JULY 181 



waters which have pike ; but, as will be 

 seen immediately, we have no encourage- 

 ment to plant pike in waters which have 

 trout only. It is easy to understand why 

 a lake which has pike yields trout which 

 on the average are larger than those 

 caught in a similar lake without pike. 

 Many thousands of very young trout are 

 devoured in the one water, and many 

 thousands of very young trout are left to 

 rush at our flies in the other. Explain- 

 ing the humble average size of trout 

 taken from the pikeless lakes, that solves 

 half of our problem ; but it leaves us 

 without any light whatever on the other 

 half. As is known by every one who 

 trolls a minnow in the intervals of 

 casting flies, the lakes which are without 

 pike have huge trout ; but where the 

 pike are not, only the comparatively 

 small trout rise ! The same mysterious 

 law is seen in another aspect through the 

 fact that on a pike-haunted lake you will 

 catch with fly as many trout of 1 Ib. or 

 over in a day as you can by the same 



