The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-06-14

be told that genuine brook trout Ia about
the cleverest thing in the fish limo that
swims.
Yes. or on Ash line. either, inter.
rupted one Of the other three
That goes without saying, responded
the fat man; But | wasn't going ia talk
about the ole YER, s, Of troy. IN H., tghmnE
way they have Of sizing up the flies and
other lures that shows their smsrtne~:
But this smartness saw demonstrated
went a long way beyond that sort OF thing.
If you had ever been up there you would
know that there never was stream named
that had more appropriate or descrip-
tive name than that same Clear Creek.
The water is just ~ clear as glass. clearer
than most glass. Why. you can see every
deepest pool In the whole stream. and ~
course there amt a trout In the course
of days fishing that doesn't spot You
the minute you get anywhere near within
ran nfsat makes it al, the more fun to catch
'em. But when you do get fly they'n
take, you have your sport cut ont for you
for while.
THE trouble is that 1t comes so fast
then that you get tired OF 1t too soop II
ceases to be fun to snake out three OF four
pound trout just as fast as You can Why,
II only takes three or four of them TO fill Q
ten.pound basket, and there you are.
We'll. it was that that first showed me the
cleverness Of these Clear Greek trout.
was away up the stream from the place
where was stopping one morning when !
began to fish. and hadn't gone hundred
yards down stream when I had my basket
full, and more, too, and had to put up my
, rod.
Il struck out for the ho,ise along tho
bank Of the creek, GUESSING myself for hav-
ing come 40 far UP before getting TO work
l didn't pay much attention TO the creek,
but just walked along at good clip anxious
to get back.
BY and by I noticed some sort of a com:
motion going on in the water beside me and
stopped TO see what 1t was about ! don't
suppose you fellows will ever believe II
until you get up there and see it for your
snd o S' 'he ns ssntf or ssS 'ne" was
.The creek was plumb full Of trout, and
there wasn't one Of them Iees than two
and half feet long. They were all gathered
up in a bunch and seemed to he fighting
among themselves for the positions nearest
the bank.
when stopped to look at them; they
stopped swimming and fighting. and lust
hung around opposite me. ! couldnt
make anything out OF that sort OF doing,
and 40 after while l started on GOWN
stream again.
Pretty soon looked around. and theirs
the whole posse Of them came swimming
along after me, and fighting among them
seyes to get ,o close to W he ssI
they did. and when started on they fol-
lowed
Il had heard of trout being friendly and
tame, but ] never saw anything IKE thak
before. though I've seen 1t good many
times since up on Clear Greek.
-As we went along the bunch kept pick.
ing up more and more trout. and it wasnt
long before the commotion they maze IN
the water was as much as " small sade-
wheeler was churning things UP: You see
thox, oy,l,, uotborol ~ n t,i0 fQllOwA. Tor
the little ones couldn't stand the gan OF
the fighting and shouldering 1t took TO Keep
any sort of place in that procession. Why.
they actually had the water lashed into
foam with their leaping and splashing.
well, had got almost to the. houss
before ! caught on to what it was all about.
You SEQ the bank Of the creek is not very
high, only few feet, three or four, above
the water, and it is lined with good-sine1
grass that grows thick ana strong rtghs
where I had been fishing the geek
runs through big meadow that is used for
pasturege for cattle and there WAS a we'll
worn cattle path along the hank ON eac9
side. That made II easy walking ana, OF
course, I naturally followed the path.
.The tall grass hung over 30 that the
tops of II met over the path and a. walked
along, Of necessity ! kicked It up good
the fields were full Of grasshoppers. Well.
that WAS what the trout were after.
"My walking through the grass stirred
up the hoppers, nd as they got out 81 tne
tall grass lots OF EN- didn't get good start
30 that instead of flying out OF trouble they
went down over the water: A good many
of them would have strick it II it hadn't
been for the trout But they never let .
hopper get away.
afhey came out of the water sometimes
two or three feet after the bugs and wer0
Just having the grandes~kind Of a fcaet
I figured il out that they had got used to
following the cattle along the path and it
didn' 7 make any difference to them whether
] was a man or cow 80 long "a l stirred
up the hoppers.
The fat man stopped and there was q
roar of appreciation of his story. Before
tall man in the corner had had all he could
stand. He dropped his feet from the edge
OF the seat opposite and Strengthened up.
The quartet all turned to him with ex.
pectation on their faces;
THAT makes me think, he said, of the
pike and pickere down in my part OF tho
country.
u came from Kentucky. and there. are
some streams down around my place whore
those fish are 80 smart that they never
get caught by line fishermen. But you
take it after q good rain storm and walk
along the bank Of most any Of the creeks
and you'll get all you ca carry home Ia
ten minutes,
you see, they come right out q the
water then and nose around in the grass
after the angle. worms that come mp out
OF the ground when It rains"
The Fat man looked at his watch.
Gee he said. its 10 o'clock. ! g'iess
III turn in"
So they all went to their berths, and tho
tall Kentuckiap put a match to fresh
cigar and resumed his comfortable position
in the corner.