The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-06-30
FISH GENERALLY ARE
NOT EARLY MR|ssE EaRss
The Late Rising Angler Stands
as Good a Chance as
Others.
OLD RULE A FALSE ONE
All Game Fish Feed at Night. and
as a Result Seem in No
Hurry to Begin
Biting.
OLD RULE A FALSE ONE

New York Sun: THE angler who
hour in the morning in order to get to
fishing by daylight is following a rule
as old as the art of angling, but a false
rule said an observant brother of the
angle.
A game fish are night feeders. This
is particularly true OF trout and black
bass. The fisherman of Lake keuka.
in this state, are we'll aware Of 1t, and
their biggest catches Of the biggest bass
are made between dark and midnight.
Any n who has sat by some alder
skirted pool on a trout stream as night
began to fall knows what a lively
change comes we it's surface With the
passing of day. He might have sat
there an our or more, and seen no dis
pool. save h occasional ruff1ing by a
passing breeze.
But with the darkening OF it by the
evening shades, what q transforma-
ton he secs! First, a dubious lifting OF
the water near n edge of the pool,
perhaps where the alders hang lowest.
n a bullying bit of surface Instantly
breaking into a tinkling splash, and
fading away in widening ripples. This
movement is quickly followedsb by SINH
lar one, here, there and yonder, until
the gathering darkness hides them
from his view; but the splash and
tinkling Of them continuing tell him
that they are still disturbing the some-
time quiet of the pool.
insects.
The listener. If a skilled angler.
would know what la brought about
this change in the aspect of the pool.
He would know that with the coming,
OF evening h winged and creeping in
sects that appear only at night a left,
abroad, hosts of them falling into or
ai'mlessly alighting on the water or
crawling into it, and tha the trout
which had been lying low in the depths
of the pool had aroused to their royal
feeding time.
passing every other where along the
stream he would discover the same
busy szane at every pool and reach
Of water. Ard If he should remain at
the side of the stream until midnight
he would hear the musical commotion;
continued.
Then 1t would begin to grow less and
less. until within an hour only the wa
ter's w music vol be heard. The
time for FEEDING is past, the time for
rest and sleep has come, and the trout
have retired to their haunt beneath
Liz LII IOChS ana ~ONeTQan2lQR
banks. surfeited. and no tempting lure
couid"induce them to dash upon 1t.
Game Fish Sleep Late.
The person who has seen the trans
formation that takes place in a trout
pool at evening will sit in vain to see
1T disturbed again by trout rising to
passing food before s o'clock next morn
ing. Came fish are rarely astir before
that hour in the morning, as I have
demonstrated by years of close obser-
Walton. So when I hear the angler
crawling out of his comfortable bed am
hour CT so before day. and, regardless
OIL breakfast, or, at best, hastily gorging
q cold bite. hurrying away to be the
first on the brook or lake. in the belief
that daybreak is the time of all times
TO catch fish, / smile n turE, over. en-
joy an hour or two of that incompar-
nbie early morning sleep, get up and eat.
a good breakfast and go out to deliver.
TO the trout or bass, which are just
then themselves getting up, the lure
the like of which they haven't known
that the early angler has been vainly
trying to give them for the past three
hours.
The early bird may catch the worm,
but 1T isn't the early angler that
catches the fish; SO unless you have to
get up early because your fishing
ground lies at a distance, stay abed
like other folks, take your regular
breakfast and then by the time you
get to fishing the fish will be ready for
theirs"