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=By Charles Bradford=


    =The Determined Angler=

    "Most sensible volume of its kind."--Grover
    Cleveland. 12º. illustrated.
    By mail, $1.10.     $1.00


    =The Angler's Secret=

    "A modern 'Compleat Angler.'"--N.
    Y. Times. 16mo illustrated. By
    mail, $1.10       $1.00


    =The Angler's Guide=

    "A valuable volume of reference for
    the Angler."--Dr. Jas. A. Henshall.
    200 pgs. By mail, 80 cts. .75


    =The Wildfowlers=

    A volume of duck shooting. "A
    classic."--N. Y. World. 16mo illustrated.
    By mail, $1.10   $1.00


    =Frank Forester=

    Life and Writings of the Father of
    American Fishing and Field Sports.
    By mail, $1.10      $1.00

    [Illustration: A MORNING'S CATCH OF TROUT NEAR SPOKANE, WASHINGTON

    "Three times too many for one rod."--_William T. Hornaday_
    An object lesson on the too-liberal fish laws. _See page 38_]




    The Determined Angler
    and the
    Brook Trout

    An Anthological Volume of Trout Fishing.
    Trout Histories, Trout Lore, Trout
    Resorts, and Trout Tackle

    By

    Charles Bradford

    Author of "The Wildfowlers," "The Angler's Secret."
    "The Angler's Guide," "Frank Forester," etc.

    [Illustration]

    _Second Edition, Greatly Enlarged_

    _Illustrated_

    G. P. Putnam's Sons
    New York       London
    The Knickerbocker Press
    1916


    COPYRIGHT, 1916
    BY
    CHARLES BRADFORD

    The Knickerbocker Press, New York


To

J. CHARLES DAVIS

THESE LITTLE YARNS ARE DEDICATED IN REMEMBRANCE OF SOME DELIGHTFUL
OUTINGS PASSED IN HIS SOCIETY.




THE BROOK TROUT'S HOME


    "I am _Salmo fontinalis_.
      To the sparkling fountain born;
    And my home is where oxalis.
      Heather bell and rose adorn
        The crystal basin in the dell
        (Undine the wood-nymph knows it well):
        That is where I love to dwell.

    There was I baptized and christened,
      'Neath the somber aisles of oak;
    Mute the cascade paused and listened.
      Never a word the brooklet spoke;
        Bobolink was witness then.
        Likewise grosbeak, linnet, wren--
        And all the fairies joined "amen!"

    Thus as _Salmo fontinalis_
      Recognized the wide world o'er.
    In my limpid crystal palace.
      Content withal, I ask no more.
        Leaping through the rainbow spray.
        Snatching flies the livelong day.
        Naught to do but eat and play."

        CHARLES HALLOCK.




BROOK TROUT ANGLING


"... it carries us into the most wild and beautiful scenery of
nature; amongst the mountain lakes, and the clear and lovely streams
that gush from the higher ranges of elevated hills, or that make their
way through the cavities of calcareous strata. How delightful in the
early spring, after the dull and tedious time of winter, when the
frosts disappear and the sunshine warms the earth and waters, to
wander forth by some clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the
purple bud, to scent the odors of the bank perfumed by the violet, and
enameled, as it were, with the primrose and the daisy; to wander upon
the fresh turf below the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are
filled with the music of the bee; and on the surface of the waters to
view the gaudy flies sparkling like animated gems in the sunbeams,
whilst the bright and beautiful trout is watching them from below; to
hear the twittering of the water-birds, who, alarmed at your approach,
rapidly hide themselves beneath the flowers and leaves of the
water-lily; and as the season advances, to find all these objects
changed for others of the same kind, but better and brighter, till the
swallow and the trout contend as it were for the gaudy May fly, and
till in pursuing your amusement in the calm and balmy evening, you are
serenaded by the songs of the cheerful thrush... performing the
offices of paternal love, in thickets ornamented with the rose and
woodbine."--_Days of Fly Fishing, 1828._

"Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I confess my discourse
is like to prove suitable to my recreation, calm and quiet.... And so
much for the prologue of what I mean to say-"

    Izaak Walton

[Illustration]




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
