82 
KENDALL; NEW ENGLAND CHARES. 
a fin. In late years I have come to the conclusion that the fish are influenced in their movements 
by barometric changes, and it has seemed to me that when a storm is approaching the trout 
settle down, as if awaiting its advent.” 
Another man wrote regarding September fishing on the Rangeley Lakes: “For ten succes- 
sive days I cast steadily, whipping every nook and corner of the Upper Dam, without a solitary 
rise, yet I could see the big fellows breaking water every little while ; but they carefully eluded 
the fly. On September 15, I made an early start, taking a lunch, and pulling my boat to the 
narrows, and fished ‘Cedar Tree,’ ‘Minters’ Favorite’ and Metallic Brook, returning in the 
evening. Last year at Metallic Brook I had splendid luck. This year during the entire trip 
I did not get a single rise, and this after pulling my boat some fourteen miles. I tried Brandy 
Point, Sandy Cove and Trout Cove in the big lake with the same result. The fish were there 
I saw dozens break water — but they would not take the fly. Some friends of mine at the 
Middle Dam reported the same state of affairs in that vicinity, and Parmacheenee always 
good fishing ground — afforded but poor sport, while the ‘affidavits’ were all the same — the 
fish were there. They could be seen, but they would not bite. 
Another correspondent of a sportsmen’s paper, who is frequently quoted in this article, 
wrote regarding the celebrated Marble-Morse fish referred to in another place: “I remember 
well the large trout, the 11 -pounder which for several years in the autumn came to the same 
place in a moderate swirl of water above the dam, where in his mighty solitude, for he seemed 
to be quite alone, he would signify his presence occasionally by an uplifting on the surface which 
would make the angler’s heart quake. He became the target of many ambitious efforts, both 
of fly casters and bait dabblers, but maintained a dignified and conservative indifference. In a 
quiet surface and with the sun’s rays in a favorable quarter he was often observed either in quiet 
meditation or slowly taking his constitutional promenade. In vain were flies sunk down for his 
convenience and equally vain were tidy worms and natty grasshoppers trolled before lus majestic 
presence. Some vowed he was 3 feet long, that his mouth was large enough to take in a black 
duck, and that he must weigh 15 lbs. Well, he was taken one day by an old guide, who would 
have scorned to have taken him in any other way than fairly. But most curiously he was taken 
while everybody was at dinner, and according to his account, he had allowed his w'orm-baited 
hook to rest on the bottom for a while, from which it was seized by the old patriarch and in 
natural sequence completed his foraging adventures and soon he lay gasping on the green grass. 
He did not prove to be 15 lbs. in weight, or 3 ft. long. In fact he was a very short trout for his 
weight, measuring exactly 27j inches in length and of magnificent color.” 
Speaking of the pool below the former stone dam he said: “Some days one might whip the 
pool for hours without a rise, although gigantic breaks might occasionally be observed, but 
the favorable hours in the right season was sure to reward the seeker. Once I caught the pool 
on a day of high carnival, a day of exultant joy, of moving and commotion of trout, which on 
