AMBEIOAN CHAEES (BEOOK-TEOUT) 



My largest brook-trout is a two and a half pounder, and this is 

 perhaps above the average. In brooks it ranges from six to 

 eight inches in length, and from a few ounces up to three pounds ; 

 in rare cases six or more pounds. 



The brook-trout is at home in the charming lakes of Quebec, 

 especially in the chain'of lakes in the preserve of the Laurentian 

 Club on Lac la P§che. Here appears to be a typical fontinalis, 

 and particularly in the splendid preserve of my friend Mr. George 

 A. Weber there are, unquestionably, several varieties. This 

 preserve is about one hundred miles north of Montreal in a 

 country abounding in lakes, with an area of seventy-five square 

 miles. One day we discovered a new lake, which I named 

 Weber, after my host. I fished the entire lake with every fly 

 and lure I could think of, with no result ; then one of our party 

 in another canoe uttered a shout, and my canoemen, Tom and 

 George Cadarette, rounded me up at a little point to become a 

 participant in a wonderful angling symposium. 



All the brook-trout in that lake had apparently collected 

 about a spring, in water possibly ten feet deep, and they seemingly 

 covered the bottom in a solid mass. The moment a fly dropped 

 upon the water, up they came, little meteors reversed, taking 

 the lure and going down without stopping. My men paddled 

 the canoe back about thirty feet and I began casting, hooking a 

 trout at almost every rise, using of course one fly. We could, 

 literally, have fiUed the canoe, but took only sufficient for our 

 camp wants, and passed on to other joys and lakes in this splendid 

 region, which is typical of much of the province of Quebec. 



Trout angling in any land is one of the joys of life. From 

 early times it has been the pleasure of studious men, an art 

 and an exact science. Volumes have been written on its ethics 

 and philosophy, and to hundreds of men it is the breaking of a 

 law of morality, as binding as that of the Medes and Persians, 

 to approach a trout with anything but one fly, and a barbless 

 hook. It requires some temerity to break this. I am a strong 

 adherent of the fly ; in fact, I go so far as to say I should Uke 



21 321 



