THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



"A PEKFECT DAY" 



[Editor's Note. — The following interesting narrative was received fioni 

 an unknown writer. It may have some connection with a recent fishing trip 

 of "Red Necktie" Van Duzer, "Walt" Bachus, "Doc" Stolte and I. N. 

 Fleischner. ] 



THE sun was trying to shine through some thick clouds as we left 

 the station last Saturday morning on one of our weekly winter 

 fishing trips. We were all there with our baggage, and tools of 

 the 'craft, as reports had come in that the conditions were ideal. We 

 had swallowed this sort of bait before many times with indifferent 

 success, but we were just as hopeful this time as we had been before. 

 A fisherman must always be hopeful and wear the badge of optimism; 

 that is part of his religion. 



The start was clearly propitious; the sun was shining; the weather 

 man stated "Fair today and tomorrow," and the reports we carried in 

 our pockets — "Conditions fine, now's the time for the steelheads, " 

 were encouraging to the quartette. 



We were a merry crowd, and, having traveled over the Nehalem 

 route many times, forgot to look at the wonderful landscapes which 

 were continuously in view. We told the usual stories, some grown gray 

 in the service, and some new — real bright new ones out of the Bible. 

 Thus time whirled on as the train labored laboriously over the moun- 

 tains, entirely too slow for this anxious little crowd. So much en- 

 grossed were we with the work before us that we did not notice the 

 long freight trains loaded with aeroplane material which we passed at 

 several spurs. Lunch over, and, by the way, this is always an import- 

 ant event and part of the trip, we sat with our eyes glued to the win- 

 dows watching for the river in order to find out if the conditions were 

 really what they had been reported. Sometimes these reports are 



