The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-08
ANGLERS AFTERMATH.
The Difference Between Wise and
Foolish Fishers of Trout.


Noisily along the bed of the stream the
incautious and untutored fisherman
splashes, crushing down shelving gravel
bank here and there upsetting bowlder
and withaI in the foolish expectancy of
catching trout.
Not to his creel shall the veteran of the
pool come. He has heard his boisterous
approach long since, and is under the
willow shaking his fat sides in laughter at
the bunch of feathers that slips by his
snout-the line, the rod and the man
behind them all.
Not so the lingering. That giddy
youngster skips up and takes the fly just
for exercise, and is dragged by the gills to
the basket OF this Herod of the hook, this
murderer of the innocents. He passes on
still boisterously wading the brook, and he
leaves behind him the skillful anglers aft
ermath.
Peering cautiously through the bushes,
stepping lightly ON the telitale gravel and
gently pushing the rotten branch aside,
this other type of fisherman advances. He
has seen the pool-just glimpse of it,
of how much line it will take to land his
cast under that fringe of willows and
where his back cast is most likely to
land. By this time the fat trout, still
amused by the frolics of the splasher,
swims into the center of the pool and takes
keen glance all around. That stone chat
has moved his position to rock farther
down stream, half dozen blackbirds are
bathing in the shadows, COW is cooling
her heated sides in the long reach above
the alders. These things the fish perceive,
but there is nothing to be alarmed at. A
caddis floats along. The trout nips him
and begins to think that he has an appe-
tite. what fools those fngerlings are, to
be sure" and again his dorsal fin shakes
with mirth. ''Why could not that giddy,
little whlpper-snapper wait until all was
quiet and serene before feeding? Why
could not he do as his elders do2 Halo,
what is this? A red spinner and
way on the ripple. 1 have mouth
on me for spinners this morning." and
the jaws close upon the natty lure. Then
there is rush and plunge as the foe dis
closes himself. Now a dash for the snag
at the bottom OF the pool, again a bold
break for the clum,p of weeds, but all in
vain. In the indifferent presence of kline
and stone chat and blackbirds the over
confident trout lies exhausted on the
gravel. A young bird is about to fly,
but the chaperon of the party says:
Don't be alarmed, ladies, the man has
not a gun with him. I'm real sorry for
that trout. l had struck up a sort of
acquaintance with him on those bathing
excursions and he used to bow to me quite
pleasantly. But have always suspected
that he was greedy fellow"
Later in the day, when the wise and
foolish angler meet farther down the
stream, the latter is stricken with astonish-
ment at the others success, and wonders
how 1t was that big fish escaped him.
Even in the streams within a few hours
OF the City are pools where there is abun-
dant aftermath for the careful angler. In
Fairfax Creek, where the picnickers fling
their sardine boxes, and where orange
Feelings are as thick as leaves in Vallom-
brosa, good fish are caught late in the
season. In the Ross Valley Creek a few
fat fellows will abide under the tangle,
where they feel perfectly secure. The
Paper-miu stream, which is always the first
to come under the ban OF ''tished out"
continues to yield good fish up to the
winter rains to those who work the pools
with skill and caution.
While large number, certainly the
majority, of the big fish of the coast
streams go to sea, there is always contin-
gent which hangs back until it becomes
literally. land-locked. A trout, like cat,
has undoubtedly an affection for certain
localities. A deep, snug pool, with plenty
of shade, hollow bank to lie under, a
group of rocks in the center to scratch
against, and an unlimited supply of in
sectS, are hard to resign for the great
ocean, with its seals and salmon and other
ferocious things whose creed is that might
is right.
One day this week fve-pound steelhead
was taken in pool known as ''the well, %
in the Mill Valley stream. The fish had
incautlously come out for a swim in the
shadows, when the small boy with the
club perceived him and knocked him on
the head,
In Giolis Lagoon, near Point Bonita,
there were number of big fish this year
until the ranchers cut through the sand
bank that divided it from the ocean and
they all escaped while the men were at
dinner. In the big slough that comes in
at Tamalpais there are always steelhead,
which sometimes bite with avidity, and
again seem Indifferent to all and any kind
of attraction. The huge stingaree also
sails around in foodtide and creates havoc
among anglers. A whirr, rush for the
set rod, and away the ravenous beast goes
with the entire cast in his NAV.
An attempt to check him is as futile as
trying to pull on the rear end of moving
locomotive. Out goes the line to the last
pot, then snap, and the stingaree, posi-
bly, with the consciousness only of having