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FISHING IN MAY MORNINGS The Sporting Farmer Stumbles on the Giant of the Pool How the Fisherman Lost Him and How the Fifth Shed the The big pool lay Mack and mysterious in the gray of the morning Away at the far end the up stream end two noisy streams splashed and gurgled their way into the quiet black depths bringing sundry bits of food to a large school of minnows which darted back and forth always on the look ¬ out for anything edible that might come their way writes F V Williams in Kod and Gun In Canada CanadaA A whitethroated sparrow twittered his greeting to the coming day while away in the distance a black pirate crow called loudly to his mates and a red squirrel started at the sudden arrival of a kingfisher which alighted on a branch adjacent to the one whereon he sat making his toilet swore and scolded at such a rate that the long billed fisherman shifted his position to a quieter location directly above the falls fallsA A wood sparrow with two fat white grubs in her beak flew across the larger of the two streams some few yards above the falls One of the grubs and a big Juicy fellow he was fell into the stream Tills bit of manna from the skies rolled and tumbled and tossed about in the miniature falls until he arrived at the big pool and had scarcely begun to recover from the rough Journey when he was seised by a couple of the larger minnows From nowhere apparently there appeared a couple of dozen of their kind and for a few seconds there was a darting twisting mass of silvery sided bodies as the little fellows dissected the big grub Plunk A blue black and white feathered body with a spikelike beak drove straight into the mass of struggling fish and almost at the same instant from the depths of the pool came a savageJawed mottledbacked speckledsided trout Eighteen inches in length he was his bright red yellow and bluespotted sides giving him a beauty that was hard to beat One minnow disappeared between his heavy Jaws and was gone at a gulp Then the kingfisher still grasping his prize started upward the big trout struck savagely at his rival carry ¬ ing away as a memento a blue black and white feather from the birds tail tailDEFENSIVE DEFENSIVE HAUNT OF BIG TROUT TROUTSullenly Sullenly the big trout dropped back into the depths of the pool and over under bowlder the top of which was but a foot under water He came to rest just above a bit of fine gravelly bottom From here he had a point of vantage that was hard to beat for any living thing of his own kind must needs pass before his door before going down stream and any floating food that came from Dither stream must pass his inspection as the cur ¬ rent drew in toward this side Last but not least prowling mink and once an otter had been foiled by the labyrinth of heavy roots that came down behind this same large bowlder At the first sign of danger he would slip back into their friendly shelter and clever indeed would be the fourfooted hunter which could dislodge liim from his refuge refugeSix Six oclock of a May morning a light buggy drawn by farmer Youngs little brown mare came rolling along the quntry road Farmer Young and the fellow from the city were up here after trout Well it sure was a beautiful morning both from the city mans point of view and from Youngs The one was thinking of his crops the other of the beauty of hill and valley in the spring sunshine but who shall say that farmer Young was not the most appreciative He at least could not be satisfied in the city He had to have room to think to breathe to live The other though he talked much more about the beauty of every ¬ thing could and did live without it sometimes twelve months of the year and only on rare occa ¬ sions like this was it that he got away to visit the country and this time it was not so much the country as it was the trout that he came to pay his respects to toThey They had arrived at a small wooden bridge at the sight of which the driver slowed his horse down to a walk and observed observedThis This is about as good a place I know of to start from Five miles of stream here down to the pool and from the pool youll find a bit of a trail leading up to the road Ill be there long about five or six this afternoon afternoonPREPARATION PREPARATION FOR SPORT TO COKE COKEThe The fisherman alighted from the rig removed his waders fish basket and rod from the back of the buggy and proceeded to get into his outfit as the farmer goodnaturedly joked him Why say he remarked weve been over that same route youre taking today with nothin but a alder pole and a linen line with worms for bait and brought home as high as twentyeight trout and I didnt get them all either Seems to me with the The fisherman laughed as he jointed the new Bris ¬ tol rod and replied that the rod in his outfit was the most valuable part of the whole for one be ¬ comes attached to a rod much the same as to a gun and this one though it looked new had seen eight years of service whenever there was an oppor ¬ tunity to use it itFanner Fanner Young turned Ills team about and with a last Good luck see you this afternoon was gone goneThe The fisherman started away down the stream When the sun stood at its height overhead he sat down on a log and finished a generous lunch that had been put up by Mrs Young the night before Then followed a drink from the quiet stream and a long smoke There was not a sound to disturb the quiet of the place and it was hard to remem ¬ ber the din and racket of the crowded city here with these surroundings For tLe present at least the hustle and roar were a dream and he almost fell asleep so comfortable was he in that sunny nook nookA A saucy bluejay discovered him at last and with a cry to the wood folk flew up to the top of a small evergreen where presently he was joined by his mate For a few minutes the fisherman watched the pair then opened his creel and looked at the prizes taken that morning thirteen nice trout the smallest eight inches in length and the largest nearly a foot and a few minutes later while the bluejays were picking up the remains of the lunch and cautiously investigating the paper in which the aforesaid lunch had been wrapped the man with the Bristol rod was on his way down stream once BIG TROUT FIGHTS AND GETS AWAY AWAYHere Here and there he picked up a fine fish and as the creel was waxing heavy lie put carefully back anything under eight inches for the stream seemed alive with trout troutEmerging Emerging presently just above our pool of the morning he took a long survey of the place Here truly was a likely looking shelter for a big one to finish off with He recognized the trail described by farmer Young and then he noticed the big bowlder just a short step from the rocky shore a shore that was a bit too high to land a good fish on from above He would try the bowlder he had thought the bowlder but two or three inches under water but discovered the clear water was about one foot in depth over the top and as he gazed down into the pool he realized that a mistep would mean a drop into about ten feet of water waterNoiselessly Noiselessly the flies settled down just below the first fall again over where the smaller stream came in Again and again the fisherman tried his best flies and gave it up in despair Evidently the place had been fished out and the fellow with the rod was gazing about to see which was the easiest method of regaining the shore when the point of the rod resting in the water behind the man on the rock was suddenly yanked down as if electrified Then a screaming reel told of the live whatever it was that had captured the trailing flies that a few seconds before had been drifting in the stream so carelessly carelesslyWith With a start that nearly caused him to lose his balance the fisherman took in the situation and carefully keeping a taut line he turned about to out maneuver the largest trout he had ever seen It was touch and go for five ten fifteen minutes before he dared to attempt to put the net under him and when at last he reached down the splendid fish lay on his side apparently exhausted Not ¬ withstanding with a last despairing effort the big trout sprang up and away from the net the man on the rock lost his balance and with a splash that sent tiny rings of wavelets to the shore he fell into the pool poolHOW HOW THE BIG FISH RELEASED THE HOOK HOOKEver Ever try to climb out of ten feet of water onto a round bowlder with a pair of longlegged rubber boots on your feet and also with your coat on If you think youre good at acrobatics try this some time The fisherman made it after he was nearly exhausted recovering his landing net hat and rod but not the fish The leader was broken off half way and as to the fisherman What would you have said gentle reader under the same conditions What this particular man said doesnt matter Besides it might not pass the censor The man took off his boots turned the water out of them took off his clothes wrung them out as best he could and was at the country road shortly after his host arrived The farmer laughed at his be ¬ draggled appearance but congratulated him on the fine catch he had made twentythree fine trout Do you know he said youve got more meat in your twentythree fish than I had in my twenty eight as a third of mine were only about six inches in length lengthAt At farmer Youngs table that evening the fisher ¬ man had to relate his experience all over again and when he had finished the farmer remarked that he had never seen a trout in that pool nor heard of one being taken from it and added I spose that was the reason that there ol whopper kept all the others out of there or gobbled them up upWay Way back in the depths of the black pool the Ol Whopper worked and worked on a troublesome barb with a twofoot piece of leader attached On the evening of the second day the barb was finally removed by rubbing against a bit of rock leaving an almost dead trout to recover his strength as bestTie 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