Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-15

| jumped, could not say, but 1t appeared
to wear itself out in the air throwing
somersaults, and slowly 1 reeled 1t In,
always fighting, and finally had 1t in
| forever
Seven poundsl'' said the boatman.
| We fished all day up that little stream,
rowing slowly on, rounding curves OPEN
ing up other vistas and delights; cast
ing across, up and down, covering every
square foot of water and taking rainbows
OF various sizes, conditions and colors,
ranging up to eight and even ten pounds.
Late In the afternoon we came to the
lower reaches of one of the little rivers
ana hoated out into the lake on whose
oiear surface. as far as the eye could
reach, were innumerable circles, radiat-
! ing waves of water-the rising of trout
TO some actual or imaginary insect 1 fell
irto the humor of casting at these tar
gets without avail, then changing my fly
| to spoon about as large as little finger
| nail, and with this astern, rowed out
into the lake. across which dark purple
shadows of Mount Pitt and other neigh
| boring extinct volcanoes were creeping.
| The lake was a sheet of glass reaching
away to the distant hills and everywhere
| splashes and rings of water could be
| seen.
|
| risin,' y whispered the oarsman. "Looki'
and then, ah, then came a tug on the
line and something very like whale
| rolled over and attempted to get out Of
| the water astern.
"A trout" cried the boatman, land too
big to jump, as I'm a sinner"
A Lightning Fighter
Whatever it was. 1t threatened destruc-
| tion to line and tackle, that rod that had
killed seventeen-pound yellowtai, the
hardest fighting fish that swims. Yet I
| fully expected to see it go to pieces under
| the strain. The water was only ten feet
deep; the fish could not sulk or go down,
| so 1t made a splendid line-taking run
around the boat, walking off with it in a
| manner that brooked no opposition, surg
/ ing along on the surface, it's fins out,
stopping now and again to thrash the
| water into foam with a colossal tail,
| which made the oarsman groan in spirit
lest it escape. and kept him backing and
| rowing to keep me facing the game.
| You got the boss!" he cried, as the fish
| rushed dead away, taking fifty feet to the
| music of the reel, and certainly believed
had. 1t was magnificent, the power of
that fish in taking the line from beneath
| my thumb, and 1t kept on going until
surrendered and told the oarsman to back
up and back fast. In another moment the
unknown would have unreeled the 900
feet of line and have ended it: but by
forcing the light boat astern with power
| full blows he gave me an opportunity to
gain few feet; then the game, finding
that it was in the tolls, stopped suddenly;
the line Slackened and sank inert.
"Gone, by jingo!" cried the boatman.
But the boatman was wrong; the fish
was coming in, headed for the boat, and
coming like an arrow from bow 1
| reeled rapidly; the little multiplier groaned
and sank and ate up the line by inches
and feet, the game still coming in 1
reeled until I was dizzy, but there was
still a long loop of line out and dragging,
and so slack was it that 1 was obliged to
| guide 1t on the reel.
Suddenly saw big form almost at the
| boat; then something broke water ahd
tossed 1t into our faces, and a second later
the reel was screaming. The fish had
Fcome in to the boat, taken look at us,
and was gone, and when the impact came
the light rod bent and quivered as 1t never
had before, and nearly all the line went
whistling out as the fish dashed straight
away
For nearly half an hour this fight went
on. Sometimes 1 gained on the fish, then
lost; but slowly, very slowly, the game
was outfought, and very tenderly
played it, as had but a delicate fly hook.
Finally reeled the fish to the quarter and
saw what 1t really WdS-a prOulSlOuS
Rainbow trout; not a sucker, as / had
feared, or some unknown nondescript, but
to me at least the father of all trout
But the battle was not over. 1t seemed
almost an impossibility to coax that mon
ster within reach of the net. and appre-
ciated the fact that it had been long
fight and that the hook might have worn
hole in the mouth of the fish and drop
out at the slightest sackening OF the line,
or might break at the swivel. A hundred
unforeseen things might happen; but Tor
tunateIy none did. / kept the fish WITHIN
twenty feet of the boat for some minutes
gradually bringing it within reach, ana IN
a happy moment the boatman slipped ms
capacious net beneath 1t and lifted 1T, held
it moment, a blazing mass of color, then
laid it in the boat and dispatched 1t as
became a Christian, again holding 1t up
that | might admire its beauties.
IT was a rainbow trout indeed, scintil-
lating with all the colors Of the rainbow
| and much lighter than the river hsh. IL
timed the scales at nine and three" quarter
mounds and was three feet in length. In
noint of fact. it was built for a fifteen or
eighteen FOUNDER, so far as length was
| concerned. but was in poor condition.
| though a splendid fish, it's lack of Fat
making It the hard fighter it was. 1t
would be delightful to raise the flag and
claim that this was the record fish. but
| the fact is that twenty-one FOUNDER, NOT
much larger, was taken from tne SAM @
waters. But nine and three-quarters was
| glory enough"