86 Fish Stories 



Monte, near Monterey, where the sea could be heard piling 

 in upon the sand dunes, and the strong wind made music in 

 the splendid grove of pine and cypress; music of the sea, 

 in rich gradients of sound, rising and falling, swelling, until 

 the air was filled with mystic strains. The old ranch of 

 Los Laurelles, up Carmelo Valley, about seventeen miles 

 from Del Monte, became our objective, and we decided to 

 go over the Salinas pass, which wound up the Corral de 

 Tierra mountains, fish Rio Carmelo down to San Carlos 

 Borromeo, that stands, a lighthouse to souls, overlooking 

 the not distant sea. 



It is well for anglers not to make trout, of all fishes, the 

 prime objective of a day's sport, as no more uncertain game 

 loves the sunlight. To-day he is yours for the very asking; 

 to-morrow, the most luscious lure will not tempt him. One 

 hour he defies you; the next, gazes at you from some en- 

 sconcement of the fishes, and knows you not, as you pass 

 him, casting, by. 



I believe I accumulated some of this angling wisdom years 

 ago in a certain trout domain in New England, where there 

 were streams and pools, ripples, cascades and drooping trees ; 

 where everything was fair and promising to the eyes for 

 trout; but it required superhuman patience to lure them, 

 and many a day I scored a blank. Yet on these very days 

 when lures were unavailing, the creel empty save for fern 

 leaves, I found they were not for naught ; that the real fish- 

 ing day was a composite of the weather, the wind, even if it 

 was from the east, the splendid colors of forest trees, the 

 blue tourmaline of the sky that topped the stream amid the 

 trees, the flecks of cloud mirrored on the surface. The de- 

 light of anticipation, the casting, the play of the rod, the 

 exercise of skill, the quick turns in the stream opening up 

 new vistas, the little openings in the forest, through which 

 were seen distant meadows and nodding flowers — all these 

 went to make up the real trout fishing, the actual catch being 

 but an incident among many delights. 



