Forest and Stream 
Vol. LXXXII. 
April 11, 1914 
No. 15 
Early Spring Trout Fishing 
Live Bait is the Thing—Advice to Tyros 
April once more brings us into the trout sea¬ 
son, and with this first touch of spring we fol¬ 
lowers of Forest and Stream begin to think of 
the day to come when we can enter this sacred 
realm of sport. We watch the brooks and rivers 
with the eye of a distracted mother over her 
young, and wonder just how long the high water 
of these spring freshets will 
last. Will it take long to 
drain away the overflow of 
the winter’s snow, or will 
the streams regain their 
normal size and clearness 
in this first welcome month 
of the season? Such is the 
question of the day in the 
minds of my fellow anglers, 
and such is the biggest 
problem that confronts the 
early fisherman. 
To the early trout fisher¬ 
man there is one solution to 
this problem which high 
and riley water confronts 
him with. To fish with flies 
is impossible, both because 
the streams are too dirty 
and high, and because the 
real living horde of flies 
and insects has not yet in¬ 
vaded the country. The 
only alternative is bait. 
Angleworms are best for the smaller streams, but 
the real tempter of the big trout is live fish bait, 
caught in shallow pools of any stream by seining, 
or with a very small hook. It is generally the 
chub who inhabits the same water with the trout, 
or the clumsy sucker that travels up and down 
the big streams in schools of thousands. I have 
seen these suckers blacken the upper waters of 
the Brule on their spring run to the headwaters. 
Either the chub or the sucker, cut-scaled into 
strips of shiny white meat, is the best possible 
bait for half-pound to six-pound trout. In the 
use of this fish bait it is hard to catch the fish, 
and the angler must use a great deal of caution. 
Maybe describing the treatment of a large pool 
with bait would explain the method better. 
I had started out along the bank of the Brule, as 
the water was too high to wade, and was running 
too fast with the overflow of spring to manage my 
By J. L. B. 
canoe and rod at the same time. Thus the only 
recourse was dry land, and this made only the 
pools accessible on such a large stream. With a 
minnow bucket alive with chubs, a Leonard rod 
and stiff long silk line, I dropped down river to 
“Big Pool,” that measured at low water a depth 
of fifteen or twenty feet. Here was my chance 
Catching an Eight Pound Trout With the Hands. 
for big trout, and I made proper use of the op¬ 
portunity offered. 
It was my experiment in this high muddy water 
and I wanted above all to prove my theory cor¬ 
rect. So I began, first by taking half a chub— 
the tail end—and hooking it fast to a bass hook 
that had a double gut lead. This huge "wad” of 
bait I dropped into the current and allowed it to 
run out seventy-five or a hundred feet, the line 
swirling about in the eddies, the bait I knew not 
where, except that with two buckshot it shotdd 
be far out and dragging the bottom of the stream. 
In this setting I waited, letting the movement of 
the water take care of my bait. 
It was perhaps five minutes before anything 
happened. Then slowly the line grew taut and I 
could feel the slight sucking-in of the bait. It 
was a new sensation to feel the trout strike in 
that way. but the bigness of the bait, the depth 
and length of line accounted for the slow but 
steady pull. As the pull increased I fed out line, 
foot by foot, until perhaps ten feet of line had 
been given out. Suddenly I jerked, and jerked 
hard. The reel spun and I saw my fish hooked 
as he came out of the water, shaking a gleamy 
head to free himself from this newly discovered 
monster. But I was ready 
for a fight, and keeping my 
line forever taut I netted 
him, a huge rainbow weigh¬ 
ing perhaps three pounds, 
and in the pink of condition 
from plenty of food and 
the colder water of winter. 
Such is an example of 
fishing for trout with chub 
bait. Try it some time. 
Don’t let the dark, high wa¬ 
ter scare you away. Don't 
let the man who thinks he 
knows trout turn you from 
your purpose. Use lots of 
line, heavy weights and a 
big hunk of bait from a 
chub or sucker. I’ll proph¬ 
esy you success, as it is 
the only way to lure the 
big fellows from the depths 
of any sized stream. Occa¬ 
sionally the large rainbow 
or speckled rises to the 
fly, but from intimate knowledge of trout 
I know that the big ones sulk in the re¬ 
cesses of dark pools and cannot be tempted by 
an inconspicuous trout fly or “gob” of angle- 
worms. 
Remember also that catching one trout from a 
hole doesn’t mean that you should pick up and 
move. Stay there; perhaps ten or a dozen are 
waiting for an introduction to your basket. Pa¬ 
tience is a great factor in trout fishing. Never 
hurry, you have all day, and the time wasted in 
scrambling from pool to pool might well be 
spent on a previous pool. The “marathon” man 
on the trout stream gains nothing but distance 
and kicks himself at the day’s end for his un¬ 
seemly haste. If there are men ahead of you, 
don’t “cuss” them out or try to lap them the 
next bend. You may rely that the fishing is as 
good here as ahead. 
469 
