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CUT THROAT TROUT IN IDAHO for Fish in the Bitter Root The Lady Mother Nature and Gentle Spring started it Our family was then residing in tin Palouse belt of eastern Washington It was tin first week in March For two days a lively Chinook had been ambling across the byways The grasses were beating their former early appearance record and also seemed to present a more vivid jjreeuness Butter cups and dandelions were in bloom ground squirrels were busy and then some meadow larks robbins and bluebirds wen making the air melo ¬ dious and down in the ranch fields the cheery call of Bob White announced that the season was on At such a time in such a place and under such circumstances no one could take the joy out of life On Saturday the Lady inquired if anything had been billed for the morrow Nothing had so slu suggested we make a flying halfday visit with the Masons The Masons lived in the Bitter Roots at Fernwood Idaho so I wired Kd and inquired if our visit would inconvenience thorn He wired back Come Bring rod reel line hooks but not Hies And I hail no thought of fishing Did you ever receive such a ooaxlrV Kd evidently had n early touch of that ancient longing longingW W arrived at 11 oclock the next morning The Bitter Knots are a war neiglilior to the Palouse country but not in the same ward as to climatic conditions When we alighted we realized it was yet winter in the mountains Wo had noticed n sinplus of snow during our ride up the mountain valley but as this was simply a visiting jaunt of a few1 hours duration the snow proposition did not worry me The snow was about sixteen inches on the level in the cleared valleys and alwiut two feet in the timber Everything surrounding and every ¬ thing worn resembled winter and 1 wondered why Kd had wired me to bring my fishing tackle tackleAs As wo visited around the festal board during tin midday lunch Kd confided that hi possessed a water holt in the St Maries ICiver that was not frozen over he asserted it was full of trout ami furtlitr that they were accepting angleworms With Hie major iiortiou of the stream frozen over this story seemed unbelievable to me and would have been a perplexing proposition to put up to the ordinary man But I am not an ordinary man 1 caase 1 am an angler and fisherman and implicitly believe anything told mi by my brother anglers and Ed Mason is OIIL of the stanchest of them themOFF OFF FOR THE FISH THROUGH SNOW SNOWAfter After lunch our two ladies cuddled down to get the greatest amount of enjoyment out of our short visit Kd and I packed our kits on Eds gas car and in a short time we were as near his hole as was possible from the railroad Then came a wade through the snow in some places reaching to the hips Just as we reached the hole it began to snow A genuine mountain snow squall and although they ait of short duration they are aggressively fierce while doing their little bit I proposed a hasty re ¬ treat but Ed said No we would catch some fish fishI I do not know how Izaak Walton would have acted under such circumstances but 1 uttered some frosty remarks and shivered in the storm while watching my energetic companion rig up his tackle Each minute it seemed as though it were snowing harder than the minute before so I kept on shiv ¬ ering until Kd pulled out a couple of cut throats of about one and onehalf pounds each then I warmed up a trifle and when Kd yanked out a third cap ¬ tive I forgot it was winter in the Bitter Roots and imagined I was going to catch a black bass down in Florida and began to rig up my own tackle I forgot it was snowing and was soon dangling an angleworm in the same hole alongside with Kds And I too caught a trout Just one a cut throat aud he would have gone over a pound but I felt far different than I had twenty minutes previously Some fish are always putting the sauce of joy into the anglers heart Kd caught seven or eight more it stopped snowing the sun beamed on the snow covered stream and forest and either the hole had been fished out or the fish were tired of the sport Anyway they stopped bitting bittingPECULIAR PECULIAR HABITS OF IDAHO TROUT TROUTUnder Under the circumstances the season of the year and the weather conditions this seemed to me quite a successful adventure and somewhat out of the ordinary It interested me to the extent that I came back again two days later to have some more of it This time my mind was set on real fishing with the determination of the seasoned angler as I had never before tried trout fishing under such conditions and it all was so unusual id could not KO with me this day but he had kindly saved a nice lot of worms for my benefit It was bright and sunny the snow had begun to dwindle slowly but the stream was still frozen over and in the woods the snow was crotch deep There were sev ¬ eral open places in a threemile stretch of the stream and I fished them all with care and dili ¬ gence and from each hole caught from two to six trout When train time arrived I possessed a fine creel of cut throats to show for my day s efforts The trout on these two days were not aggressive were very slow in taking hold and one had to allow them to run with the bait before striking The actual fishing reminded me of the biting of the whitefish and suckers of our Idaho trout streams a kind of gentle sucking in of the bait with a halt effort to get away with it They did not put up any fight were always hooked deep and easily landed lie was a far different fish in rod man prisms from the same snecies that is hooked by the fly any time botwwn May 1 and November 1 on the same waters They were all in good flesh firm and possessed a delicious flavor It was not the joys of the regular fishing season but an aside angling jaunt that has furnished me with pleasant thoughts of the fish when my mind had the privi ¬ lege to enjoy such a luxury I have never tried since for the cut throat in winter weather but if storm or in winter weather I can honestly reply that the cut throat has been lured under such cir ¬ cumstances E K Stedman in Sports Afield
