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DIFFICULT TROUT FISHING Student of the Game Is Usually Most Successful in Catches Trouble of the Angler frith Brnshed Brnshedi i River Rods and Their Coat t and Efficiency The pictured side of angling is often the wholly imaginative side or nearly so writes Robert Page Lincoln in Rod and Gun in Canada The actual thing about angling is that it is generally pursued under conditions that are nothing if not detrimchtal to wliat is ordinarily considered as pleasure though these conditions are never mentioned in print for the angler never wants his brother angler to know that lie has encountered difficulties that lie has had illluck that everything was not as it should be If we are to go to the pictured side of angling we view the reproduction of a painting of an outdoor artist for instance appearing on the cover of a monthly magazine Inevitably the artist portrays a broad pool with a waterfall tumbling into it and the conditions generally are such in a picture of this sort that casting the fly is a thing easily to be contrived But never will you see a painting of a man lost in a wilderness of bushes endeavoring vainly to slip in and get a shot at the stream that snakes along under tiic tangles Were such a paint ins to find reproduction tlie angling brotherhood would not be pleased for the simple reason that it would be distasteful to tlie remembrance of many who have done most of their fishing along such streams but have always dreamed of a big wide stream where the poetry of fly casting could be carried out in the fullness of its charm charmOf Of wide and easily fishable streams there are many all over the broad reaches of this continent Yet at least half of tlie streams of Canada and the United States are of the brushed in sort where one must be the possessor of an acute sense of cautiousness and skill to have even a scintilla of success Yet one searches vainly throughout tlie various annals of sport for temperate articles on fishingjtfst such streams streamsEverpresent Everpresent rules of angling abide in the con ¬ sciousness They are riot hard and fast rules if they are to be considered rules at all Nevertheless it is consistently held that the1 artificial fly alone should be used in trout fishing The truth of the matter is that there are streams where the fly can iiot be used it being a physical impossibility Hence there is only one thing to turn to and that Is the live bait Recalling the ingenious words of one wellknown writer that The sportsman ¬ like angler always uses the artificial fly except when lie is alone or words to that effect FINEST FISH OF BRTTSHEDnr STREAMS The joke of the whole thing about the brushedin Stream is this It Is as apt as not to possess some of the finest trout to be had But one can jusj picture these sleek fellows in hiding laughing figu ¬ ratively up their sleeves Get me if you can Usually one Cant and there you are If one were ever needing of the science of ang ¬ ling it certainly is when trying to circumvent a stream of this sort It is a test of skill to the i limit The man who can fish the brushedin stream successfully even with live bait ranks well in tlie lead among anglers Now I say this knowing full welt what I am talking ab6ut You approach a stream of this sort Sometimes you are not abe to see it for the tangles What to do It is a Imatfer of thrusting the rod in here and there and trusting to the gods that luck be thine If you catch a fish there is not ranch chance of playing the fish to net after the timehonored rules but you must lift that fish otit as best you may through that ceiling of shrubbery Nevertheless there are open places here and there and to find these places is like as not tlie open door to success The lure to the hook cannot always be east One slips in hero and there drops the lure to tlie bottom feeds out line lotting the lure take its way down the stream If you are using tlie angleworm it is hooked not through and through as one does who is given to stillfishing but rather inserts the hook right under the skin A little movement now and then the slightest wiggle to the worm will prove unfailing in its attraction It is just thjs system of worming for trout that John Harrington Keenc extolled though it was his favorite method to keep the worm off tlie bottom of the stream as he had a particular aversion for the bottom fisher fisherA A single hook in bait fishing attached to the leaders end is one way two liooks are often used and I may say one is more sure of a catch One iiook is slipped onto the leader and fastened one inch above the hook that is connected at the tip Thus tlie back hook is inserted under the skin of tlie worm at one point and the front hook right in the thick collar of flesh around the worms neck When a trout takes this if he is hungry he will be well liooked and a trout needs to be well hooked that is to be taken in the brushedin stream streamEODS EODS FOR THE WORK AND THEIR COST There can be no doubt about it the heavier rod must find a place in bait fishing and especially in fishing along the streams of which I have spoken Some prefer a rod of eight ounces al ¬ though the regulation sixounce trout rod will do In my line of preference for this work I list rods and their material as follows 1 The steel rod 2 Tin wooden rod 3 The bamboo rod rodOne One rarely likes to go up against difficult fishing with a thirty dolfar handmade bamboo rod when a six dollar steel rod Will do as well Again there is little if any casting to do save flip casts and underhanded casts arid these are easily contrived with the steel rod suitable for the purpose purposeYou You may speak forever about the singleaction reel for other sorts of trout fishing but tlie auto ¬ matic reel has tlie foremost place whenever there is difficult fisliing to be done It facilitates re ¬ covery of line in a manner that is impossible try as one will with the Singleaction reel Therefore tlie successful bush trout fisher avails himself of any one of three makes of automatic reels that I know of and has no trouble in making connec ¬ tions tionsIt It is desirable in bush fishing for one to have a leader free of knots or at least of such small kuots that the leader may readily be reeled in up close to the hook for obvious reasons A kuotless leader such as the Telerana Nova comes in handy It id not necessary that tlie leader be over three feet in length though I vastly prefer the six foot one To sink the leader If it is desired one may wind on strip lead which after all is much better than the split shot and once put on it stays whereas the split shot are always coming off One may shave of fills own strip lead from a piece of pipe pipeSome Some prefer to use small hooks for this sort of fishing others use the Number 10 consistently and I cannot but help recommend it for the purpose purposeOf Of course there arc1 many sorts of streams to be considered in the brushedin stream class There hre those of the rivulet class though having deep iliole riandrun8iaiqng tjieir course Thjs class of stream may be all the way from tlireetp six feet wide Strange as it may seem such streams often have remarkably deep holes along their course Find those deep holes and you like as not run injo i nest of fine big fellows just waiting for a chance to nab your lure lureSTREAM STREAM STUDY ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY NECESSARYOther Other brushedin streams besides the above men ¬ tioned range all tlie way from six to twenty feet in width Again a stream may be quite wide but the tendency of the willows laurels alders etc to lean over that stream from both sides makes it quite difficult to get at Some of tlicse wider streams may be waded but wading a stream es ¬ pecially if it has a muddy bottom will never do ifor most of the lime it is fishing down stream all of the time and the stirring of the mud sends a dis colpred volume down thus warning at fish of ypur approach Some would have us jMiliQYe that the fiph think this cpming of rqiled water down the stream make the fish believe that there is a rain on and that consequently live stuff will be floating down but such ajn assertion is anghable Fish are npt such fools and know as well as we do when it rains Hpveyer where the stream is rock setfi the wading down stream js permissible It is given to the trout fisherman under all con ¬ ditions good or bad to study the stream that is being fished Ascertain where the deep holes are and how to get at them Make note of snags that will be encountered If there are net works of roots along the banks or thrusting out into the center of the stream the trout will instantly dart into tlie midst of these tor safety when hooked There must always be room toor so that when a fish iStobe hooked there is no tangle of brush to get in the way The hooking of the fish itself in the brushedin stream is something of a knack as you will or have found ant Your line with the bait to it may be ten or fifteen or more feetdown stream testing out the possibilities in the pool when a trout takes it The minute the trout lips that bait told by the JEeer along the line and thence along tlie rod you should set the hopkt Tills is contrived by a gentle twist of the wrist rand no slam bang performance will do at all Instantly upon hookjng the fish the line must be recovered and here is where the automatic reel proves its worthiness over them all The line is taken in with the left hand while the right hand finger touches the lever that eats up the gathering Again there is no such a thing as a slack line when using ithe automatic reel because the touch on the lever instantly eats it up For this reason I would I never recommend the single action reel when trout ing under diffiqulties no matter what those diffi ¬ culties be Even in the midst of a rushing river the automatic reel has points to ity credit that no single action reel can afford affordMuch Much pf pnes success at fisliing tlie small stream depejids upon ones cautiousness of approach To work tip on a brooklet of this t ort on all fours is really the best way Trout are easily frightened by liny sounds made along the bank of a stream and certainly this s true of the small stream for llid reason timt one Is brought in closer proximity with tlie fish The trout of the small streams are keen and alert To get them oe must acquire an alert ¬ ness In proportion to the alertness of the trout If he does this he will have luct and much of It There Urair unappreliended amount of good fishing to be had along the smaller stream of the country IVrhaps fliere are hundreds of thene stream that unobtrusively contain trout without anybodys knowl ¬ edge of the fact lit a country where streams are spring fed along their course or where there are spring pools in the streams one finds brook trout fishing J f t e best
