Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1903-07-10
NIGHT TROUT FISHING.
There Are Some Queer Things About
1t That Tend to Make 1t
Fascinating.

Night trout fishing is a form of
sport that the regular fiy-caster has
not tried and would disdain to try,
but 1T has its merits. Not the least
of them is that the trout, through
some crankiness of its nature, will
often bite after day when all through
the day it lies motionless at the bot
tom of a pool and refuses to rise to
the most tempting lures. AT such
periods the entire nature of the fish
seems to have changed and it has
become night-hawk. rowing its ma
tive stream from dusk to daylight
and sleeping through the sun hours.
There is no such thing as taking
half basket of trout after dark
with the fly. Changed as the fish is,
1T still has sense enough to know
that insects it likes are not abroad
at that hour
Occasionally one will rise to an ar.
tificial fly cast in the dark. but this
is so exceptional as not to be worth
counting 1t will take the worm
aviGiy, however. when it is night
feeding, and it is with worms that
the night fisherman takes it.
There is no explanation of how the
trout manage to see the worms in
the dark. They find them. however,
on the blacklist sort of night. and
possibly they are guided by sense
of smell.
Where there is one trout there are
apt to be more, and the angler who
has taken One with his bunch of
worms may confidently drop them in
70 he
chances are that he will land a half.
dozen beauties before he is forced
to move on by failure of supply.
The sensation afforded is an odd
one, because the fisherman cannot
see his line. nor tell when the trout
strikes except by the jerk. All he
can see is the trees waving darlxly
against the sky on the bank of n
river that is only dimly visible, and
now and then he catches a glimpse
of his rod, which looks like a line
no bigger than a lead pencil running
out over the water.
He fights his trout blindly. he has
no knowledge of the movements it
is making nor has he any idea Of its
size, except from the trouble it gives
him. until it has been scooped within
dipnet struck downward blindly
and lies gasping the bank. With
light rod and silk the angler, if he
strikes a heavy trout under these
circumstances, is seriously at a dis
advantage 1t is this very uncer-
tainty which lends night fishing its
charm to some men.
In some parts of the province of,
Quebec, and in other parts of the do
eninion, it is the custom of the coun-
try people to fish for brook trout aE
most wholly after dark, and they
take them in enormous numbers
These folks are not refined enough
10 use supple fly-rod and silk line
They have, instead. poles which
they cut on the banks of the creek
or river. and stout linen cords To
their hooks they fasten half a dozen
worms and drop them in wriggling,
and when they get strike they yank
the fish fifteen feet in the air, land
ing him on the bank behind them
with a thump. They always build a
large fire on the bank and the trout.
are attracted by the light, coming in
schools to the feeding.
At such a place in proper season
half a dozen men and women will be
yanking out speckled trout as fast as
they can take them from the hooks
and will keep this sort of thing up
for an hour, going back to their
homes before midnight with two or
three hundred speckled beauties.
The trout taken in these streams
are all small. seldom running above
half a pound. but exceedingly fine
table fish. with the bright salmon
flesh and true trout delicacy Of
favor.