374 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Are Trout Color Blind?” 
By “Brook Trout.” 
S OME time ago 0 . Warren Smith had this 
inquiry put to him: What is the reason 
that sometimes trout will not rise to bait or 
flies? Mr. Smith regarded the particular fish as 
being “of? their feed,” summing it up in this 
way: 
“As to why trout do so, I can only say, be¬ 
cause they are trout. You can no more explain 
the ways of a trout than the whims of a woman. 
Again and again I have seen just what you de¬ 
scribe. And I know of nothing more vexatious 
than to behold a pool the bottom of which is 
fairly covered with great lusty trout ‘off their 
feed.’ Probably the answer to the puzzle is, the 
fish are not hungry. 
“As a rule, when speckled trout are found in 
.schools they will not rise to a fly, and turn up 
their noses when garden hackles are offered. On 
.■such occasions I have always found a wee bit of 
■comfort from two lines of an old poem. The 
farmer was bound to sell his place and in many 
verses told his spouse why, but she, more wise 
than he, refused. Then he shouted: ‘I vum, I’ll 
liave my way as well as you; if you are bound 
to stay here, I’ll stay here, too.’ 
“More than once I have said, ‘If you do not 
want to bite, you just don't have to.’ On such 
•occasions one can sometimes circumvent the lazy 
fellows with earth worms, seldom, almost never 
with flies. Perhaps what is to follow will not be 
■considered good sportsmanship, but getting the 
best of the fish is. 
“When you have located a school of sleeping 
( ?) trout in a deep pool, forget them for a time. 
Fish on down stream until the fish have forgot¬ 
ten that the shadow of a man ever fell upon 
the surface of their home, then circle, keeping 
away back from the stream until a hundred feet 
or more above the pool. Now bait up with 
worms, use two or three so that the bait can be 
easily seen. 
“Carefully and slowly pay out line until the 
bait has reached the pool. Take plenty of time 
and do not become impatient if the worms are 
not promptly taken, neither bother about motion. 
If you hook a fish the chances are that it will 
be a large one, so coax him slowly up stream, 
away from the other fish. Fight and land well 
beyond the ken of the school. Then go down and 
get another. 
“I have worked this scheme successfully in 
open meadows when the mid-day sun was beat¬ 
ing down upon the surface of the pools and all 
■other tricks and wiles were useless. As I said, 
perhaps it is poor sportsmanship, but I have gone 
home more than once with a few trout when 
otherwise my long journey would have been in 
vain. 
“Sometimes when the trout are ‘off their 
feed,’ ‘sleeping,’ or whatever it is, you will find 
that they will rise to a fly when a vagrant breeze 
roughens the surface of the water or a cloud 
.passes over the face of the sun. Again they will 
look at no bait or lure. They are ‘off their 
feed.’ ” 
Some time ago there was a story of a man 
who caught a- trout that had swallowed a mouse, 
causing the angler to meditate on the reason why 
the trout struck the hook so ferociously when 
the fish was already gorged with food. S. E. 
Stanton, of Utica, being familiar with the queer 
antics of the brook trout, gave several plausible 
reasons when the subject was discussed as to why 
the trout should strike the hook so ferociously. 
Mr. Stanton said: 
“I have seen instances -exactly similar to the 
trout and the mouse, also have caught speckled 
trout that were gorged with minnows and with 
plenty of evidence that trout strike the hook 
by reason of hunger only a very small percent¬ 
age of the time. The other reasons are several. 
One is the desire of the larger fish to show his 
ability and excel in getting the moving bait of 
any kind from smaller fish. Another reason, 
trout will take the colored fly hooks possibly as 
a matter of envy, and again to possess the colors 
of the fly, thereby adding to their own beauty, 
because a trout is very proud, and a speckled 
beauty of the pool is as proud of a dress of 
colors as the belle of Fifth avenue is of her col¬ 
ored gowns. No doubt the first reason given in 
this particular case is why the trout took the 
mouse.” 
Edward A. Samuels, who is an all round au¬ 
thority on fish, was once beaten by a twelve- 
year old country lad, greatly to his chagrin. It 
came to pass in this way, according to Mr. Sam¬ 
uels : 
“I was fishing the Great Falls pool, in the 
Maitland (N. S.) river, with very good success, 
rising and killing my fair share of good fish 
daily. One morning I saw, out in the middle 
of the pool, a large fish come to the surface, and 
as it turned with a big swirl it displayed a tail 
certainly five inches in width. It was a noble 
fish for those waters and of course I was anx¬ 
ious to capture it. 
“Well, for two days I worked hard, but al¬ 
though he condescended to display his tail occa¬ 
sionally, he treated my flies with absolute in¬ 
difference. I suppose, first and last. I tried fifty 
varieties and of all sizes, but in vain. The most 
expensive and beautiful salmon flies had no 
more attractiveness for him than the most ple- 
bian appearing in my book; he absolutely declined 
to notice my efforts to please. On the morning of 
the third day he met his fate at the hands of the 
lad I have named, and by means of a fly that 
any half-way decent pickerel would regard with 
derision. It was simply a bunch of scraggly 
feathers picked up in the barnyard and tied on a 
hook that was, I am ready to make affidavit, big- 
enough for a cod. 
“Well, this is only one of many experiences 
which go to show that trout are mighty no¬ 
tional.” 
J. M. English, of Vilas, Penna., says: “Every 
old angler can recollect of trout biting time and 
again, and even after being jerked out of the 
water or turned over several times, quitting only 
when led or thrown out. For example, a trout 
about seven inches in length lay under an old 
log at the side of a narrow, quiet pool. The bait, 
an angleworm, was dropped close to the log as 
though it had fallen into the water. The fish 
saw it, and coming from under the log, picked it 
up. A quick stroke of the rod snapped the line 
close to the hook, leaving the hook in the mouth 
of the trout, sunk through the nose until the 
barb came out at the top of his head as far back 
as the width of the hook would allow. A com¬ 
panion who saw the fish and the subsequent loss 
of my hook imitated my cast and pulled out the 
trout with my hook still in his nose.” 
Theodore Gordon is known for his writings 
of the Beaverkill and other upstate trout streams. 
He had an experience of casting- over rising 
fish and not getting one, while his companion 
killed forty-three trout. He tells it in this way: 
“The stream at Bellefonte, Pa., was large, with 
numerous dams upon it, and held a large stock 
of trout. The finest tackle was necessary and 
very small flies. It was most important to as¬ 
certain the color of the fly the fish were rising 
at, as, if this could be matched, a fair basket 
of trout would follow. To give an instance of 
this, I will relate a single experience. 
“I went up stream one afternoon with a resi¬ 
dent of the town to a dam which had been con¬ 
structed only two or three years before the time 
of which I am writing. We found that the trout 
were rising all over the shop at a small ephemera 
with pale yellow body. This we tred ito imitate 
in vain, and also used all of the flies that were 
usually most successful. At last my companion 
found a small yellow dun in one of the leaves of 
his fly-book, and upon attaching this to his cast, 
found that he had done the trick. Casting over 
rising fish only, in a very short time he killed 
forty-three trout, while I could do nothing. He 
had no other fly at all like this one.” 
It was a salt-water angler who had the pecu¬ 
liar success of catching trout on sea worms and 
shrimps. This incident took place many years 
ago in some of the streams between Beverly and 
Gloucester, Mass., which empty into Massachu¬ 
setts Bay. He writes: “I had no success with 
angleworms, I could not get a rise on a fly, and 
I tried about every known cast, but I met with 
success on seaworms and shrimp at half tide in 
brackish water, and landed three beauties averag¬ 
ing over one pound. Salt water seems to bleach 
the colors a little, making them more of a light 
golden hue, but does not effect the spots, which 
remain the same deep orange tint.” 
Minnesota has a forested area of 28 million 
acres, the largest of any state east of the Rocky 
Mountains. 
