THE HABITS OF THE TROUT 



forceful in action, lazily and leisurely taking the sur- 

 face lure, and robing himself with a more subdued 

 coloration, which latter, however, seems to illuminate 

 the vermilion spots on its body and deepen the glow 

 of the blue areola around each dotlet tinged with a 

 scarlet hue. 



Among the fly-fishermen for trout we often hear 

 these characteristic phrases : " He is a slow striker," 

 or " a quick striker," and these qualities when applied 

 to the methods of an angler seem to satisfy his brethren 

 of the craft as to the reasons for success, or the lack of 

 it, in the rodster under discussion. Experience has 

 shown, however, that slow or quick striking on the 

 p^rt of the angler has much less to do with success in 

 scoring than the well-established fact that trout of dif- 

 ferent waters, even of the same waters where the phys- 

 ical conditions are changing with nearly every rod of 

 its downpour, have varied ways of taking a fly when it 

 is deftly thrown to them. In long, quiet pools over- 

 hung with alder growth from which insects are falling 

 constantly the trout has the habit of coming leisurely 

 to the surface, lazily as it were, taking the fly in its 

 mouth in a manner indicating a duty rather than a 

 physical necessity, closing its jaws slowly upon the 

 feathers and then quietly turning tail and returning to 

 its lair below. Now, such fish are a glory to the " slow 

 striker " ; he will creel every one of them that rises to 

 his flies. But, then and again, taking the same stream, 

 just above this quiet pool, where a strong rapid is boil- 



55 



