Vol. LXXXIX IMAY, 1919 No. 5 
ANGLING FOR SPECKLED TROUT 
THE WARM WIND OF SPRING. LADEN WITH INCENSE FROM THE FOREST, FLOATS 
UNBIDDEN THROUGH OUR WINDOWS AND CALLS US AWAY TO SEEK THE WARY TROUT 
By DAVID HAROLD COLCORD 
C atching a big, yellow and black 
bumble-bee, I carefully pinned it 
I close to a white chip about twice 
I the size of the bee, and burying a small 
j trout hook beneath this strange bark, I 
I let it float carelessly with the dark cur- 
; rent toward the log. Here the Sinna- 
j mahoning Creek turned directly at right 
j angles and gurgled its way out of sight 
j under an embankment of logs, appear- 
f ing again in a still, deep pool several 
! yards below the point of entrance. The 
' size and habits of 
I a brook trout that 
[ had lived in per- 
I feet safety under 
I this log for several 
years had become 
' legend; and I and 
j every follower of 
j the stream for 
I miles around had 
) tempted him, time 
j without number, 
with every known 
I bait from angle- 
j worms to crickets, 
I but he scorned 
I them all. He was 
j never known to 
j bite, although we 
had seen his long 
i silvery form mov- 
j ing in the still wa- 
' ter below the em- 
j bankment. The 
bumble-bee 
was well chosen, 
i and this time the 
big fellow was fooled, for the chip 
with its small cargo no sooner reached 
1 the edge of the log than there was a 
j splash, and a thrilling glimpse of a long, 
, red-speckled side and white belly. Chip, 
! bee, and all disappeared under the log 
i and my line snapped. I had reckoned 
without my host. That was in June of 
last year, and right now I am wonder- 
ing how much he will have grown by 
June, 1919, and whether he still has a 
fondness for bees, a la chip. 
I N just a few months, a warm wind 
of Spring, laden with the incense of 
the forest, will float unbidden 
through opened windows of thousands 
of stuffy offices in this half-civilized land 
of ours stirring memories of open skies, 
keen appetites, dips down for draughts 
of cold spring water, and the big fellow 
that we all lost last season. Are you 
going back to get him? 
Trout fishing is one of the good things 
of this world. Its disciples place it 
pretty well toward the top in the order 
of pleasures that make life worth living. 
The truth of this assertion came home 
to me through a bit in a published let- 
ter that I happened on the other day. 
Bobby had written to his Dad, who was 
serving in France, “The trout, Dad, are 
jumping over on Silver Creek,” and 
when I read that line a choking sensa- 
tion caught me around my Adam’s apple 
for it was an immediate revelation of 
so many things between Bobby and his 
Dad. The line was a great human 
heart-throb carried in that letter to an 
American somewhere, homesick in the 
rain and mud of Flanders. I prayed 
that a day would soon come when Bobby 
and his Dad could fish once more for 
speckled beauties on Silver Creek. 
Silver Creek! A wonderfully fresh 
picture to carry in one’s memory, dif- 
fusing a mental aroma into one’s feel- 
ings — flashlight light, if you will, by the 
splendor of its simplicity into the dark- 
est hours of win- 
ter, keeping us 
wholesome and 
sane. Pity the man 
or boy who has 
never spent a 
night at an old 
homestead, dead 
tired after a day’s 
fishing, to lie down 
to pleasant dreams 
in the depths of an 
old-fashioned 
feather bed. Don’t 
pity him, but inter- 
est him and teach 
him about the sci- 
ence and art of one 
of the great Amer- 
ican outdoor sports 
— angling for 
speckled trout. 
To enjoy fishing 
for brook trout, it 
is almost necessary 
that one’s interest 
in the sport be 
aroused early in life, but the art isn’t 
learned in a day. It is really a life’s 
study — interesting for its own sake — of 
the habits of the trout and the art 
and science of catching them. This 
doesn’t mean that only those who live 
near a good trout stream, or those 
who have enough means to allow them 
to afford an expensive trip, may avail 
themselves of the opportunity to do a 
little fishing every season. It is indeed 
fortunate to be able to spend one’s vaca- 
Opening day on a trout stream 
Contents Copyright, 1919, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
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