The Tragedy of a Barbless Hook 



witness that trout were hard enough to land under 

 the most favorable circumstances, and further declared 

 that he had little or no intention of minimizing his al- 

 ready slender chances in an effort to gain favor in the 

 eyes of one who was a better angler than he was a 

 fisherman and who was seemingly approaching his 

 dotage. Realizing that I was " preaching in the wilder- 

 ness/' I held my peace the while I surreptitiously 

 slipped a barbless number 10 Reuben Wood onto my 



00 gut leader. 



Having finished our smoke, I pointed out to my 

 friend that by cutting through some dense alders and 

 crossing an old slough we could strike the stream a 

 little farther up, where there was some excellent water. 



1 had fished the intervening water the day before and 

 had found it poor fishing. About three hundred yards 

 out through the alders we came upon the slough. At 

 that time we thought it to be dead water, though we 

 later learned that it connected with the main stream. 

 I crossed first, using a fallen tree for a foot log, and 

 had passed on some distance into the underbrush on 

 the other side when T., who had not yet followed, 

 called out that he had seen a good trout in the slough 

 and that perhaps we had better try it. 



I replied that it was dead water for I then 

 thought it was so and was no doubt much too warm 

 for trout. I also called his attention to the density of 

 the brush and alders, remarking that the brush was so 



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