Chapter II: Preface

"Don't give up if you don't catch fish; the unsuccessful trip should whet your appetite to try again."--GROVER CLEVELAND.

A preface is either an excuse or an explanation, or both. The Brook Trout needs no excuse, and it is fully explained in the general text of this volume. Nor does the Angler, be he Determined or otherwise, need any excuse, because "our Saviour chose simple fishermen ... St. Peter, St. John, St. Andrew, and St. James, whom he inspired, and He never reproved these for their employment or calling" (Izaak Walton, _The Compleat Angler_, 1653). And the Angler--the man--needs no explanation, though it seems ever necessary to define the word.

Webster, himself a profound Angler, must have been unconscious of his gentle bearing, for his definition of "angle" is simply: "to fish," and every Angler knows that merely to fish--to go forth indifferent of correct (humane) tackle, the legal season, and ethical methods in the pursuit--is not the way of the Angler.

I like the explanation of the word by Genio C. Scott: "Angling, a special kind of fishing."

The inspired landscape genius and the kalsominer who shellacs the artist's studio are both painters; so, the gentle Angler with perfect tackle and the mere hand-line fish taker are both fishermen.

The Angler is the highest order of fisherman, and while all Anglers are fishermen there are many fishermen who are not Anglers.

"Anglo-Saxon," writing in the New York _Press_. October 14, 1915, uses the term "gentleman Anglers." He should have said "gentleman fishermen" (Anglers), because all Anglers are gentlemen, regardless of their business calling, appearance, personality, companionship, etc. When a man, fisherman or no fisherman, develops into an Angler he must first become gentle in order to be of the gentle art. "Angling is the gentle art" (Walton). "The gentle art of angling" (Cotton).

"If true Anglers," says Genio C. Scott, "you are sure to be gentle."

Peter Flint (New York _Press_, Oct. 15, 1915): "Our most successful Anglers, amateurs as well as professionals."

All Anglers are amateurs, brother Peter. There are no professional Anglers, though there are both amateur and professional fishermen, and those fishermen who are amateurs are Anglers. The word "amateur" seems to be adrift upon the same bewildering tideway as the words "angler" and "angling." "Amateur" hasn't the definition commonly attributed to it--it doesn't signify inefficiency, inexperience, unpracticality, etc., as do the words "beginner," "neophyte," "tyro," etc. An amateur in fishing, or farming, or any other pastime or pursuit, may be far more practical, more experienced, more proficient, and better equipped in tools and paraphernalia than a professional, and he usually is so; he is certainly always so in angling.

Watch your word.

"It is the belief of Acker that hand-line fishing is as good [as], if not better than, the rod and reel kind." (Wandering Angler, New York _Press_, Aug. 17, 1915.)

Hand-line fishing, as fishing,--though the Tuna Angling Club, of Santa Catalina Island, California, is bound to the use of light rods and fine reels and tells us hand-lines are unsportsmanlike and detrimental to the public interest,--is good (Christ and His disciples sanctioned it), but to say it is as good as or better than rod and reel angling is not convincing. The indifferent fisher can't condemn angling in praising common fishing with any more reason than he might proclaim against cricket playing in favoring carpentry, or _vice versa_. One might as correctly say hand-line fishing is as good as riding, or driving, or golf, or baseball, or canoeing (of course it is), for fishing without rod and reel and fishing with proper tackle are pursuits as distinct in character as riding a plain horse bareback with a rough halter, and straddling a gallant charger with neat bridle and saddle; or as mere boating upon a refuse creek, and skimming the green billows in a trim yacht.

That the fisher's hand-line and the fisherman's net will take _more_ fish than the Angler's tackle is not of moment, because a stick of dynamite or a cannon filled with leaden pellets or a boy with a market basket will take still more fish than the net and hand-line. Quantity makes fishing "good" with the fisherman; quality delights the Angler. There is no objection to the mere fish-getter filling his boat with fishes with or without tackle, but as the jockey is separated from the sportsman rider and the sailor from the yachtsman so should the quantity fisher and the quality Angler be considered in contrasting spheres. "What a man brings home in his heart after fishing is of more account than what he brings in his basket," says W. J. Long. "Anglers encourage the adoption of angling methods," says Dr. Van Dyke, "which make the wholesale slaughter of fishes impossible and increase the sport of taking a fair number in a fair way."

As chivalric single-missile bow-and-arrow exercise dignifies archery above bunch-arrow work in war, so the gentle use of refined tackle dignifies angling above mere fish getting. Trap shooting is delightful, and more birds are killed than the gunner would bag in marsh and meadow, but is trap shooting therefore more "good" than game-shooting in the glorious fields and forests? No, sir; and though the hand-line fisherman may honestly take half the ocean's yield, still his pursuit and his catch cannot equal and cannot be legitimately compared to the code and the creel of the competent Angler.

=C. B.=

RICHMOND HILL,
LONG ISLAND, N. Y.,
_March, 1916_.

AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The article "Fly Fishing for Trout," I contributed in its original form to _Sports Afield_, Mr. Claude King's Western journal.

The article "Trout and Trouting," as I originally prepared it, was entitled "Near-by Trout Streams," and was written for and published in _Outing_, when I was field editor of that delightful magazine.

"Trouting in Canadensis Valley" is rewritten from a little story of mine penned at the suggestion of the noted angler and ichthyologist, the late William C. Harris, and published by him in his _The American Angler_ when I became his managing editor.

"Trout Flies, Artificial and Natural" and "The Brook Trout Incognito" are elaborations of studies I composed for _Forest and Stream_.

And many of the items in "Little Casts," etc., are from a collection of paragraphs I have contributed to the New York _Herald_, the New York _Press_, and various sporting periodicals in past years.

The extracts from the article by Willis Boyd Allen are reprinted by permission of _Scribner's Magazine_.

For the little pen-and-ink sketches I am indebted to our jovial artist, Leppert.

The picture, "Taking the Fly," is a reproduction from an etching in my possession, presented to me by Mr. William M. Carey, whose etchings and paintings in oil are well known to American sportsmen.

"The Fly Rod's Victim" is reproduced from a photograph framed in birch bark and presented to me by the poet, Isaac McLellan.

"The Brook Trout" illustration is from a photograph of a captive specimen in an aquarium, the engraving being loaned me by the late John P. Burkhard.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I.--THE HOLY ANGLERS 1

II.--HISTORIES OF THE TROUTS--HOW
THE ANGLER TAKES THEM 7

III.--THE ANGLER AND THE FISHERMAN 15

IV.--FLY-FISHING 21

V.--WALTON'S WAY 33

VI.--THE WANTON WAY 38

VII.--FLY-FISHING FOR TROUT 41

VIII.--THE ANGLER'S PRAYER--SAVE THE
WOODS AND WATERS 52

IX.--TROUT AND TROUTING 56

X.--TROUTING IN CANADENSIS VALLEY 64

XI.--THE TROUTER'S OUTFIT 68

XII.--TROUT FLIES, ARTIFICIAL AND
NATURAL 71

XIII.--THE BROOK TROUT'S RIVAL 84

XIV.--TROUT ON BARBLESS HOOKS 87

XV.--THE BROOK TROUT INCOGNITO 92

XVI.--HOOKING THE TROUT 102

XVII.--DOCTOR NATURE 104

XVIII.--THE BROOK TROUT 106

XIX.--THE ANGLER 112

XX.--ANGLING 119

XXI.--TROUT FLIES 133

XXII.--CASTING THE FLY 138

XXIII.--TACKLE TALKS 142

XXIV.--THE ANGLER'S KITCHEN 149

XXV.--CARE AND BREEDING OF TROUT 151

XXVI.--THE ANGLER'S CLOTHING AND
FOOTWEAR 153

XXVII.--LITTLE CASTS 155

XVIII.--BORROWED LINES 157

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

A MORNING'S CATCH OF TROUT NEAR SPOKANE.
WASHINGTON _Frontispiece_

BROOK TROUT 8

MALMA (DOLLY VARDEN) TROUT 8

LAKE (MACKINAW) TROUT 8

OQUASSA (BLUE-BACK) TROUT 10

BROWN TROUT 10

YELLOWSTONE TROUT 10

SAIBLING TROUT (LONG-FIN CHARR) 10

RAINBOW TROUT 12

LAKE TAHOE TROUT 12

STEEL-HEAD TROUT 12

AN UNUSUAL WAY OF TAKING THE FLY 46

THE TROUT BROOK 66

The Determined Angler