FOREST AND STREAM 
253 
ifune, 1922 
BONDED FOR A BASKET OF TROUT 
THE STORY OF ONE DAY’S FISHING AROUND BIRCH ISLAND 
AND OF HOW THE ANGLER SAVED HIS REPUTATION 
By CHARLES LOSE 
T he first pool proved a disappoint- 
ment. It was not exactly a pool 
but a long, deep, narrow eddy ly- 
ing between the stony beach and 
the stiff current made by the two chan- 
nels coming together at the lower end of 
the island. I had seldom failed to get at 
least two trout in this eddy, and 1 had 
not infrequently caught three or four; 
but this morning I had fished it from the 
head, casting out into the swift current 
and permitting my minnow to spin back 
into the eddy, without getting a strike 
until I was almost at the foot of the 
eddy. Here a fish struck the min- 
now just on the edge of the cur- 
rent and when hooked and landed 
proved to be a ten-inch brook 
trout. The trout had struck 
sharply and had held on well and 
I was not wholly discouraged. 
I was truly in need of some en- 
couragement. My family had been 
indiscreet and had invited a round 
dozen of friends to a trout dinner 
and when asked skeptically as to 
the fish, maintained that their 
angler had never failed them on 
such an occasion. While not a 
party to this rash proceeding, yet 
it seemed necessary for me to at- 
tempt to make good. I had now 
caught the first of the nearly 
twenty trout that must be in my 
basket when I started home at the 
close of the day. It was a day in 
early May, “a day with not too 
bright a beam.” The leaves on 
the maples were the size of a 
squirrel’s ear and the painted tril- 
lium was showing itself under the 
little hemlocks. The stream was 
clear, at the proper stage of water, 
and I should have a pleasant day 
despite the fact that I was under 
bond. 
I had planned to fish up the 
channel running along the foot of 
the mountain while the shade of 
the big trees on the island still lay 
on this water. In the afternoon I 
should fish down the broader chan- 
nel on the opposite side of the island. 
This would give me in all a mile of fish- 
ing which I could work easily and care- 
fully. 
HE first pool in the narrower chan- 
nel was a difficult one to fish. On 
the side next the island, between two 
trees, there was heaped a great pile of 
drift, underneath which the water had 
scooped a deep, black hole. A great log 
projected from the side of the drift a 
dozen feet out over the pool. The stream 
here gathered itself into a swift current 
that ran along the side of the pool next 
the mountain. There were nine chances 
out of ten that the pool held a single 
trout, a big brown trout, and the first 
cast proved the correctness of this con- 
clusion, for with a sharp snap a fish 
bit off the lower half of my minnow. 1 
did not particularly want this trout, but 
I could not resist the temptation to try 
it out. I waded to the bank, cut the 
hook with which I was fishing from its 
snood and in this snood tied a long loop. 
This loop I ran into the mouth of a 
minnow and out its vent and on the end 
of the loop I hung a double hook. Again 
I waded out into the stiff current and 
cast. On the instant that the trout struck 
I struck and I had it fast. But it was 
one thing to hook this fish and another 
thing to hold it. Its first attempt was to 
get under the drift where I knew that the 
projecting log would so interfere with 
my line that I should have no chance at 
all. I was so far out in the current that 
I succeeded in holding it away from the 
drift. It then attempted to go down the 
channel, but here again with my stout 
tackle I was able to hold it. Finally it 
gave up and foot by foot I reeled it up 
the current until I coidd work my way 
out on the heach, where I landed it above 
the troublesome log. It was a well- 
shaped eighteen-inch brown trout, and if 
anyone liked that kind of a trout, it 
would have been just the kind of a trout 
he would have liked. 
The next pool was a long, wide, deep 
one in which trout always spent the win- 
ter, and the only fishing that it afforded 
was at the head, where there was a broad, 
rather shallow, riffle. Between the last 
I)ool and this one there ran a swift piece 
of water which I seldom fished, but 1 
unexpectedly found that on the island 
side a stump buried deep on the edge of 
the water had been undermined and here 
1 hooked and landed a fine brook trout 
a foot in length. The broad riffle at the 
head of the pool yielded five trout. They 
struck in water that was not more than 
a foot in length. The broad riffle 
at the head of the pool yielded five 
trout. They struck in water that 
was not more than a foot in depth 
and after taking the bait, always 
tried to run down into the p<»>l 
and consequently were easily and 
firmly hooked. On the riffle was 
one trout considerably larger than 
those I succeeded in catching. 
This trout was probably fifteen 
inches in length. It was so wary 
that the instant it discovered that 
the minnow it had caiUured cmi- 
tained a hook, it dropped the bait. 
I tried for a full half hour to catch 
this fish but in the end gave it uj). 
It is not always the biggest fish 
that gets away, hut it is always the 
older and the bigger fish that are 
the most difficult to catch. 
T T was now noon and in the shade 
of a short, thick hemlock which 
stood almost over a very little and 
very cold run that came hurrying 
down the mountain side, I pro- 
ceeded to eat my luncheon, while 
1 was an interested spectator of 
the wild life about me. .‘\ pileated 
woodpecker some distance above 
me was tearing a dead tree trunk 
to pieces, stopping from time to 
time to send forth a loud ringing 
call; a pine squirrel was giving 
much attention to a grey scpiirrel 
that was encroaching on his do- 
main ; and a cock grouse had come 
(piietly out of a clum]) of hushes t" 
drink, and after each sip was looking 
slowly around for intnulers. Just as I 
had finished eating I saw my old fishing 
friend. Billy, coming up the road on the 
other side of the stream, and when he 
came opposite me I hailed him and asked 
what luck. He said that he had started 
out at daylight to fish the big pools for 
brown trout, hut had not been very suc- 
cessful. W’hen I told him that 1 had 
caught a brown trout of good size he 
waded across to see it. It was a larger 
trout than any that he had. and when I 
proposed to swap it for two brook trout 
of about ten inches each in his basket. 
Billy jumped at my offer. As good 
measure, he gave me the information 
Photoyraph by N. E. Spauldiny 
A likely pool for trout 
JL 
