STREAM FISHING. l6l 



places. I generally got two where I got one, and sel- 

 dom more than two. The morning wore along, and I 

 worked slowly down stream, enjoying the air which grew 

 softer momentarily as the snn approached the zenith. I 

 took a dozen in the open meadow, and then entered the 

 ravine, where the stream commenced its descent of half 

 a mile toward salt water. In the first basin I took one 

 larger than any I had previously caught, and then sat 

 down to rest a while in the sunshine, which stole deli- 

 riously clown through the branches of the leafless trees. 

 I had a book in my pocket. It was soaked through and 

 through, evidently at my first plunge above described, 

 when I had filled my pocket as well as my eye with mud 

 and water. I made a large fire, and laid the book near 

 it to dry. I wished to save it if I could, and I left it 

 there while I went down the stream. For company to 

 the book I left a trout, a large, fine fellow, split and lying 

 on a flat stone, judiciously slanting toward the blaze, and 

 toward where the coals would be when the blaze should 

 die away. It was an experiment. I had never tried it 

 before in that way, and I had not over much confidence 

 in it. But I left it to work its own success or failure, 

 while I whipped the stream down to the railroad bridge. 



Before I reached the foot of the ravine the cover closed 

 over the stream, and it was impossible to do any thing 

 with the flies. I know many anglers who under the cir- 

 cumstances would abandon the brook, and go on down 

 to some more open place for a cast. I counsel no such 

 nonsense as this. The true angler is not confined to fly- 

 fishing as many imagine. When the fly can be used it 

 always should be used, but where the fly is impracticable, 

 or where fish will not rise to it, he is a very foolish an- 

 gler who declines to use bait. 



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