BROOK TROUT 



amiss, large or small, be it chipmunk, mouse, frog, 

 minnow, bug, miller, grub, grasshopper, worm, or fly, 

 without regard to contour or color, though the more 

 familiar forms are the most attractive, especially in the 

 season of the year when they propagate and multiply. 

 Such being the case, it has always puzzled me to know 

 why the water-sprites {fiepida) and whirligigs (gyrm- 

 /da), which skip and gyrate all over the eddies at the 

 foot of waterfalls and dams, are so singularly exempt. 

 I have never detected a trout in an attempt to seize 

 one of these long-shanked and steel-clad harlequins, 

 and the insects in question seem to have no fear of 

 the trout. Why is this thus *? Are the things poison- 

 ous, or indigestible? or are their toenails sharp, like 

 the Irishman's humming-bird *? 



Bait and Fly. 



Some professionals delight to declare that they never 

 fish for trout except with flies, as if that indicated the 

 thoroughbred. Well ? I grant that fly-fishing is the 

 kindlier, gentler, and cleaner practice, though I think 

 the advantages of the two methods are about equally 

 balanced, if one is to consider conditions, seasons, and 

 opportunities, and the other incidentals outlined in the 

 books. One will often carry where the other fails. 

 It is not beyond depth to say that if the soi disant fly- 

 caster sticks doggedly to his high perch, despising the 

 other, he will some day have to depend on his camp 

 companion to feed the frying-pan. There are lots of 



