APRIL 7, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


SEA ANID IRIV IER FFISTEI 


- Fish Chat. 
BY EDWARD A, SAMUELS. 


Going to the Trout Streams. 
Ir is said that fishing tackle dealers have been 
doing a rushing business during the last two 
weeks of March, much more than ordinarily 
comes to them at this season of the year. This 
may be accounted for by the fact that the spring 
is a remarkably early one, and the trout waters 
are in a condition such as they usually exhibit 
at the close of April, rather than at the begin- 
ning of the month, at which period, in many 
localities, the season opens for trout fishing. 
The forwardness of the season, however, is 
not alone responsible for this activity, for the 
great army of anglers, thanks to the teachings 
of ForEsST AND STREAM, is increasing with as- 
tonishing rapidity, as is plainly shown by the 
large number of new outfits that are being pur- 
chased. : 
Well, what more sensible and enjoyable recre- 
ation than that of angling may a man indulge 
in? I for one honestly doubt if there is any 
field sport that can compare with it. I suppose 
I have had my share, and it is among my 
greatest regrets that I. shall from now on _ be 
unable to enjoy it; but if I had my life to live 
over again, I am certain that I would devote 
more time to its fascinations than I have done. 
Some Peculiarities of the Trout. 
Notwithstanding there are. more _ plucky 
fighters, fish that put up more exciting contests 
than do the trout, there is not among them all 
one which gives the average angler such intense 
enjoyment as do the beautifully colored trout— 
at home in brook and river, rushing mountain 
stream and placid forest-embowered lake. It is 
in these homes of the fish the wisest men find an 
unspeakable charm and attraction. 
Fierce combats with the mighty tarpon, the 
kingfish, the barracuda and the striped bass, or 
exciting contests with the princely salmon mean 
nothing to the philosophical mind when com- 
pared with the quiet pleasure, the full enjoyment 
of nature, which comes’ from following the 
-meanderings of the streamlet, and taking from 
its waters the fish about whose beauties more 
poetic lines have been written than have been 
penned upon almost any other subject. 
That veteran angler, Charles Hallock, has 
said, that if the preference lay between the 
extirpation of the salmon and trout, the last- 
named fish would, by his choice, remain among 
us; and he was right, for there is no comparison 
in the degree of enjoyment that is derived from 
the pursuit of these fish. 
Bait vs. Fly-Fishing. 
In the Middle and New England States fly- 
fishing during the first month of the season, as 
a rule, gives place to the employment of the 
bait, and this for several reasons. The water 
coming down from the mountain sides and other 
elevated places is charged with snow, and even 
where the use of the fly is possible, the fish are 
too sluggish to come to the surface in pursuit 
of it, and even where open water is available, 
there is not really much enjoyment in the em- 
ployment of the fly, at least until the lacewings 
and other ephemerids are flitting about and 
dropping on the surface of the water, offering 
tempting morsels to the trout. In such waters 
as lie in the perserves on Long Island, much 
enjoyment will be had with the feathered lure, 
but the number of anglers who can participate 
in that sport is comparatively small, and the 
hosts who, with rod cases and gripsacks, are 
now speeding to the streams of Connecticut and 
southern Massachusetts, to the various magnifi- 
cent trout waters with which the great States of 
New York and Pennsylvania are blessed, and to 
the few remaining streams of New Jersey which 
still contain good fish, well worth the taking, 
the majority of anglers—must for a time at least 
confine themselves to the use of the bait, and 
seek their enjoyment almost entirely among the 
brooks and small streamlets. 
To the ordinary observer it is astonishing that 
the enthusiasm first awakened in youth, continued 
through manhood to mature years, and then to 
the arrival of the allotted three-score and ten, and 
even beyond it, remains undiminished. 
A Veteran Angler's Record. 
I recently received a letter from a friend who 
resides in Connecticut, a gentleman of seventy- 
two years of age, a veteran angler and one of 
the most scientific and successful fly-fishermen 
I ever met. He commented on a short paper ot 
mine in Forrest AND STREAM of. Dec. 30 on 
“The Charms of Brook Fishing” in the follow- 
ing language: 
“From time to time in the columns of 
FoREST AND STREAM you are pleasantly called 
to mind by the reading of your ‘Fish Chat’ and 
such like articles. 
“T enjoy their reading very much, and was 
especially pleased with your article on ‘Brook 
Fishing.’ I fully agree with you; there is noth- 
ing equal to it in angling. I call to memory 
how in my younger days, I many a time have 
filled my creel with the beauties on the nearby 
brooks; good-sized fish, too, many of them 
weighing from one-half to three-fourths of a 
pound; but now there are so many who come 
out from the city, the trout are not allowed to 
grow very large, but I have managed to get in 
the later years a few fine messes for the table, in 
spite of all competition. If I could travel all day 
I could do better. Of course, I enjoy the Maine 
fishing, but it is not quite equal to the old-time 
brooks near home. 
“IT anticipate my usual trip to the Upper 
Dam [on the Rangeley Lakes] in June for five or 
six weeks’ stay; should be disappointed if I were 
to miss it. 
“In 1878 I made my first trip to the Middle 
Dam, leaving my home on June 1, and since 
then it has been my great privilege to enjoy two 
trips every year, and they are full of pleasant 
memories, I assure you.” 
Now, to further emphasize what I have stated 
I will make a brief extract from another letter 
from the same gentleman. He writes: 
“The season for fly-fishing last year at the 
Upper Dam was below the. average. I was 
there six weeks in the months of June and July, 
and the best score I could make of record fish 
(three pounds and over) was six fish, none of 
them up to four pounds. In the preceding sea- 
son I took twenty-three record fish from the 
pool below the dam. I was there five weeks, 
from Aug. 24, 1905, and took eleven record fish 
against fourteen in the same period in 1904. 
“Tn the season of 1905 eighty-eight record fish 
were taken, of which only seventeen fell to my 
rod, but as a sort of compensation, one was a 
twelve-pound salmon, taken with a No. 6 Jock- 
Scott and on a five and a half ounce split- 
bamboo rod, nine feet in length.” 
Now here is a veteran angler of the highest 
skill; who can kill a’ twelve-pound salmon using 
- trout fly and with almost as delicate a rod as 
it ever employed, and yet, with all the vast ex- 
perience and skill that he has acquired since 
his boyhood days, says frankly there is nothing 
like brook fishing. 
Well, it is not every angler who can test his 
skill against the giant beauties of the Range- 
ley Lakes, but, thank goodness! there is a gen- 
erous number of brooks scattered over this 
broad land to which all who desire may have 
access. 
Exploring New Waters. 
Among the veteran anglers there are always 
some who, possessing the spirit of exploration 
and investigation, spend a considerable portion 
of their outings in examining the various 
brooks in the neighborhood of the streams in 
which they are accustomed to fish, and they 
do this advisedly, and very often profitably, too, 
for it is always safe to assume that if there is a 
trout brook in a given locality every other 
living brook in the vicinity that is capable of 
supporting trout life will contain a greater or 
less number of the fish. 
The truth of the matter is that if a certain 
brook contains trout the fry will ascend even 
through a little tinkling rill, which carries 
hardly sufficient water to float mosquito larve 
to the little spring or fountain head of the 
brook, and if by chance there is another dimin- 
utive rill passing from the spring in an opposite 
direction, the fry will from time to time traverse 
it, and finally enter the brook below. 
I have known this to happen dozens of times, 
and have watched the little wrigglers as they 
struggled down through water which hardly 
seemed to cover the moss and herbage which 
clung among the pebbles and stones of the 
shallow channel. 
All this in the summer months, but with the 
coming of the spring freshets the opportunities 
for moving from one small brooklet to another 
are greatly increased. 
In this manner: brooks are stocked which 
sometimes flow in different directions, and often 
many miles apart. 
In addition to this manner of diffusing them- 
selves, the trout have a wonderful aptitude for 
exploring, and making homes in streams far 
removed from their native haunts, and this, too, 
in the face of no little peril and strenuous effort. 
In the early ’60s there was a_ gentleman 
named Prouty, who was a fishing tackle sales- 
man in the establishment of Martin L. Brad- 
ford, of Boston—later Bradford & Anthony. 
He was a genial soul, kind-hearted and gener- 
ous to a fault, and I verily believe that he did 
more at that time than any other man in Bos- 
ton in the way of helping out anglers, both 
young and old, in making up the kits for their 
outings, and in giving the advice which was al- 
most always asked of one who occupied a posi- 
tion such as his. 
He was an ardent fisherman, and was familiar 
with the various localities in New England to 
which anglers resorted. His advice, therefore, 
as to choice of flies, tackle, etc., for any given 
waters was accepted as dictum without hesita- 
tion. 
He had a little homestead near South Can- 
ton, Mass., and in a field not far from the house 
were several springs of considerable volume, 
which by little brooklets united into a small 
brook, which flowed down to the Canton Fowl 
Meadows, finally emptying into the Neponset 
River. 
The water in these springs was as clear as 
crystal, and even in midsummer was almost icy 
cold. The lay of the land was such that by 
erecting a dam at the lower end of the little 
field, which was almost bowl-shaped, the water 
could be held back and a pond of several acres 
in extent could be flowed. After devoting con- 
siderable thought to the subject, Mr. Prouty de- 
cided to erect the dam and start a little trout 
pond, 
The work was finally accomplished, the pond 
was made, and eventually it was stocked with - 
fingerling trout. How, when and where he ob- 
