BROOK TROUT 



art called gentle is to know how to find the trout first, 

 and then to present the lure as naturally as possible, 

 without occasioning alarm. The sequence comes with 

 the play on the line ; the reward with the heavy basket. 



Fisherman's Luck. 



Questions repeatedly present themselves to the craft 

 in this wise : Given an abounding trout stream, why 

 does the catch vary so much with equal experts ? 

 And why do not all the likely places on a pond or 

 stream pan out alike ? Why do we catch a dozen fish 

 in one hole and only one or two, or none, in another 

 equally promising? Why will one angler whip a 

 stream successfully and his partner come home light? 

 Or, of two men in a boat, why will one take ten fish 

 to the other's none ? Is it not because the laws of as- 

 sociation govern the streams, as well as the forest and 

 field, or even human communities ? Accordingly, we 

 find hermits, guerillas, wayfarers, and coteries among 

 trout, as well as communities and schools. Trout 

 have their social sets and their upper ten. There are 

 royal nibs on every stream who appropriate the choic- 

 est feeding-places and the securest holes under the 

 bank, dominating the smaller fish and keeping them 

 upstream in the shallow waters. If your angler hap- 

 pens to strike a school or a Newport set, he is O.K. 

 Again, in lakes and ponds it makes every difference in 

 the fisherman's luck whether his end of the boat or raft 

 lies over the ledge, or off it, or over its edge, or whether 



