338 With Rod and Gun in New England 



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temperature of sixty-five degrees, have sunk away to cooler depths, where 

 they remain until the surface water again becomes favorable from the 

 cooler weather of autumn. 



But in surface-stalking one does not get so large fish as in spring 

 trolling, for it is the medium-sized fish, weighing from one-quarter pound 

 to two and one-half pounds that gives itself the frolicsome play of surface 

 feeding, in the waters which I frequent, those trout averaging a trifle over 

 three fourths of a pound. 



There are certain autumnal days when the conditions are favorable, 

 when it would seem as if all the medium-sized trout in the waters were 

 surface feeding. 



Not in an eager and conspicuous manner, with splashing breaks and 

 flashing swirls, but in a quiet sucking-in from the surface of the varied 

 ephemeron which plentifully abound, in a manner so quiet as to be observ- 

 able only to the experienced eye. 



No minnow, however minute, can agitate the surface of the water 

 more delicately than a one-and-a-half-pound trout, if he wills it, and he 

 does when so feeding, although the occasional more conspicuous break 

 and swirl occurs in the presence of an unusually attractive lure, apparent 

 to the most ordinary sight. 



Equipped, the boat is propelled deftly by its stern paddle over the 

 feeding-water. The fisherman is seated in the middle of the boat, casting 

 softly to the right and left with the progress of the boat, for the advantage of 

 a possible surface trout that may be about. A delicate apparent minnow- 

 break is observed off to the right, perhaps fifty, perhaps one hundred or 

 more feet distant, of which, as soon as it is over, nothing remains to mark 

 the exact spot except a possible air bubble or two. The boat is propelled 

 toward the side of it, to within thirty-five or forty feet, when the cast is 

 given near the spot. Perhaps the fluttering fly is taken at the instant of 

 its fall, for the trout may be directly beneath, but generally not, for the fly 

 is almost always taken slightly below the surface, which position it will 

 assume on a long cast and a slow drag. 



The trout is likely to have moved ten or fifteen feet, perhaps more, 

 but he is almost sure to be picked up in the neighborhood if he has not 

 been alarmed by unskilful movements of the boat or its occupants. 



Often an active trout will be " on the go " in feeding, and by the time 

 the boat has reached a position for casting over the first break, a second 

 will be observed still beyond a possible cast, presumably from the trout 

 which made the first break, and before the second break can be reached a 

 third appears still further on, and sometimes so on, and I have often 

 followed up and secured my trout, which has carried me by a dozen 

 breaks and fifty or sixty rods beyond the initial appearance. 



Ordinarily, if a break occurs within the distance of a few lengths of 



