April, 1922 
FOREST AND STREAM 
151 
If the likely spots yield nothing it is well to try a few casts at random over other parts of the stream 
the two-handed method, so that you can 
readily take in slack by stripping the line 
as it comes down. When the bait has 
nearly reached your feet lift the point 
of the rod for another cast. It is advis- 
able to use the two-handed method when 
fishing down-stream also, as the hand 
holding the line can more readily detect 
the strike than the hand holding the rod, 
and the line can more readily be paid 
out and taken in by this method. 
As intimated, early in the season the 
fish are more likely to be found in the 
deeper portions of the stream. This sit- 
uation lends itself more readily to the 
up-stream method of fishing. The water 
is about as cold early in April as it ever 
is, since it is filled with melted ice and 
snow. Waders are therefore a neces- 
sity. You will have to be in the water 
much of the time and will experience no 
great pleasure with wet feet in the cold 
wind when you do stand on the bank. 
WTde into the shallow, swift stream 
at the foot of the deep water and cast 
lightly up tVi'enty or thirty feet, letting 
the bait or sunken fly float down with the 
current in a natural manner. If the 
stream is small, only a few feet wide, the 
fish are probably lurking under the banks 
at the side and will readily see the lure, 
no matter what its course. But if the 
stream is twenty feet wide, or wider, it 
is not likely that a fish will dart entirely 
across that distance. So the most likely 
route should be studied out and the lure 
permitted to come down this path. You 
should Ije standing directly behind the 
course which the lure is to take. If three 
or four tries bring no success then choose 
another route, near either bank or down 
the middle and then move up a few feet 
for a similar try till the entire pool has 
been carefully covered. 
Trout are fond of hiding near an ob- 
ject, such as a stone or log, or under the 
ov. rhanging boughs of a tree, or it may 
be at the bottom of a small, deep hole in 
the bed of the stream. Such places 
should especially be looked for and tried 
first. But as one looking along the 
stream from above can never see the 
environment exactly as it appears to the 
fish, it is well to try a few casts at ran- 
dom over other parts of the surface in 
case the likely spots yield nothing. 
If one fishes with care and keeps out 
of the water as much as possible, occa- 
sionally a stretch of water that has been 
unsuccessfully fished up-stream may yield 
something when the down-stream method 
is tried. Also, if the angler so choose, 
he may' fish a stretch of water in cither 
direction with a sunken fly’, and then, if 
unsuccessful, try a worm. 
, Sometimes the season is early and fair- 
ly well advanced when the first day 
comes. Then the ice and snow water 
may be well out of the brooks so that the 
color of the stream is clear, the tempera- 
ture higher and the depth less. Then 
the trout may have begun to leave the 
holes and to seek the more rapid shal- 
lows. This especially is likely if a warm 
day or two has brought out a hatch of 
early naturals. So occasionally the shal- 
lows may' be tried. The angler must be 
governed by probalnlities, and, if they 
fail, his only' recourse is to try the im- 
probabilities. He may begin fishing 
early in the day hut should remember 
that in the first days of the season the 
fish may be lix'elier around noon than 
either earlier in the morning or later in 
the afternoon. 
I F the trout fisherman decides to fish 
down-stream his problem is decidedly 
different. In general, he must use a 
longer line, because, coming from above, 
as be does, with the head of the fish 
directed toward liim, he is more likely 
to be seen and so to frighten the fish. 
There may be a screen of bushes on the 
banks or in the water, and he must not 
fail to take the be.st i)0ssible advantage 
of these. From motives of courtesy lie 
should keep out of the stream as much 
as possible, so as not to frighten the fish 
unduly as he passes, .\nother, more for- 
tunate or more .skilful, may get trout that 
the first fisherman failed to catch. 
The fish lie in the same positions, 
whether one fishes ujnstreain or down, 
but appearances are decidedly different 
to the fisherma;*!. Sometimes this is ad 
vantageous or the reverse to one method 
or the other, depending on circumstancs. 
As a rule, one going up-stream can get a 
better idea of the dejjth of water ;md 
character of the bottom, because he i> 
looking more directly down, and bectiUM' 
he can a])proach more closely withotil 
danger of disturbance, d'he down-stia'am 
fisherman is farther away and his \ i>ion 
is conse<|uently less distinct, so he nni>i 
go somewhat more by chance. 
-■Mso, his lure must often be he;i\ ier. 
because the line in running out will 
straighten and the bait be brought to tin- 
surface at such times, .\nother disad- 
vantage of the down-stre;ini method i>- 
that, if the tingler wades down the bed 
of the stream, he is continmilly roiling 
the waiter and so making it more dilhcult 
for the fish to see the lure, whether bait 
or sunken fly. He has some ad\ant;igcs, 
however, over the up-stre;im fisherman. 
-\s the current carries the bait down- 
stream he may carefully direct it back 
and forth across the current, among the 
cdilies .and along the banks. In thi'- way 
he probably covers more w.'itcr, and does 
it more tborougbly. than the uji-stream 
fishermati is likely to do. ^■et much of 
the water covered thus is barren of fish, 
and so the down-stream fisherman i< 
working to no purpose at such tinu-. 
Some recommend the ide.i of lettini; ooi 
seventy-five or a hundred feet of line 
{Continued on 178) 
