The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-04-13
Written for the ADVOCATE.
THE FIRST DAY OF TROUT FISHING


midland counties, as if they possessed an
unfailing charm against rheumatism and
ague. There is no accounting for the va
garies of fishermen. Did not men in blue
blouses line the Seine rodin hand, this last
winter, when the forts were firing shells
over their heads into Paris, and again in
March, when the Commune and the army OF
Versailles were exchanging similar angry
compliments
wait until the beauty Of May irresistably
lures them to throw the mimic fly. The
weather is by that time warm and settled,
gentle breezes tempering the heat, while
they provide that amount Of ripple on the
water which is 50 necessaryfor the angler $
craft. What refined pleasure is, then,
the first day of trout fishing There is the
pleasing anticipation of the previous week
gratited on the morning Of the happy day
I by blue skies, and a soft western wind the
slowing away in the multiplicity of pockets,
of TASKS and sandwiches prepared by low
ing hands the delighted feeling with which
we fling business, politics and cares gener-
ally to the wind the sensation Of perfect
liberty, and utter freedom from business
for a whole day These causes alone would
account for the charms Of fly fishing to an
average Englishman.
But, add to them, the indescribable, sooth-
ing effect which running water has upon
the jaded system the beauty Of earth, air
and skies the constant change If scene,
like the stream itself through
Many a field and faIlow,
And many fairy foreland set,
With willow weed and niallnW.
And again
By twenty thorpes. a little town
And half hundred bridgS.
the pleasant murmmr Of the insect world !;
the many sights and sounds of awakened
life around the while the sportsman is
exercising every muscle and calling into
practice the numberless delicate secrets of
his craft, and the delights Of fly fishing are
greatly heighted. Let him only be ordi-
narily successful and the first days fishing
of 1872 will be looked to for months as the
plessantest day Of the season.
The last sentence introduces an impor-
tant question Is the true fly fisher he who
strains every nerve to catch trout, or he
who pursues the sport with mind open to
receive delight from its numerous accom-
panying pleasures those, for instance,
which he finds in every department of ma
ture around him
Although there must be, at least, the
chance Of sport to give a man the excuse
for rambling down a trout scream, it il very
certain that, after thirty years Of aye men
begin to value the concumitants Of fly fish
! ing, the rest, the scenery, &c, more than
their actual take Of fish The secondary
pleasures Of the sport then become more
engrossing than its ostensible end The
trout stream is very Lethe to the man Of
middle life. The rail bore us the other
morning parallel to the course Of the Axe
/ river, one Of the finest trout streams of the
country. For some miles, the train had to
cross its sinuOus bends, and at every cor
ner was to be seen ny fisher. There was
Z the lawyer, the parson, the snug young
\ farmer, the captain, the country gentleman,
and many more. They all looked 50 hap
I py that IL was obvious to reflect how one
had left clients and cases behind him for
the day, and another had dismissed the
sermon and the pretty yet irksome cares Of
parochial life another was entirely oblivious
\ Of short horns "a fourth had escaped the wor-
ries Of a shrewish wife and crying children,
and so on. The Lethean drench was sleep
lily passing over their past life, and they
would return freshened and invigOrated for
/ the battle of. the morrow. A trout stream
ON this view becomes vast social benefit
I to a neighborhOod. Ladies', who have
grabbed husbands, should anxiously en-
courage it to run near their homes. In
past years men regarded it as a vast sewer
which nature conveniently led by their
towns to carry of all drainage impurities.
1t has now usurped higher function,
/ imperceptlbly conveying away the ennui,
\ ill-tempers dangerous results Of over
strained intellectual powers envies, hatreds,
malignities, incidental to high state Of
civilization. A man who goes down in the
morning as rough as Orson returns in the
evening as courteous and gentlemanly as
i Valentine.
The wild flowers on the banks of a trout
stream were nevermor beautiful than when
spring is slowly passing into summer The
golden buest of March and April, when
primroses, Lent lilies, and March marigolds
blazed on every coign OF vim age where
they could face the sun, has faded. But
brighter colored tints succeeded to gem the
living mosaic the ground is as blue as the
sky with wild hyacinths wood anomones,
and stitchwork supply the requisite cluster
Of white the archios and campion haunt
in pink and red Over all wave the pen
dulous graceful larch boughs. in all their
crisp and tender loveliness; could an angler
desire more hOwery path Who but one
of this inoffensive craft deserves it so well
But of all the realms of nature in NAV
none is 20 prodigal of interest as that t.
which the ornithologist devotes himself
and to be good fisherman, let it be remem
bered, man should almost necessarily bt
lover Of birds clouds Of troittery swal
lows and martins will attend his steps. anC
skim among his mock flies, while paying
far more attention to otheirlving prototypes
The lazy heron will scarce flap his ash
colored wings at his brother anglers ap
proach the sand piper whistles as it shoot
past him the king fisher darts by-a fasl
of emerald light wagtails haunt their We!
low wings and tails on the weir the raj
slyly splashes under the thick bushes tn,
water ousel exhibits its spotless shirt from
as it flies by, and then proudly firts it
apology for tail on some half submerxe,
stone, irresistably tempting the 6shermAl
to halt in his sport for moment, until h
sees the solution Of that ornitholoCica
problem, whether the ousel can walk on tn
bottom under the water.
OF course the same result follows a. ha
: happened a hundred times before; the Gun
| ming bird wades in, and Just m the angie
thinks, "next moment he will be pubmerp