The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-09-02
THE FUN OF ANGLING.
Big Pleasure in It Even When the
Fishes Don't Bite


task of procuring the necessary guam
sity of brain food to supply the daily
board "a it is just an excuse to get out
N the open-a sort of albi to get in
close touch with nature, and one feels,
when using it as such, like an over
Jealous grandparent who attends cir
cus-"not that he gives a rap about the
performance, for when a Teller has
seen one of 'em he has seen 'em all,
but merely to take the children to see
the clowns
In the case of using fishing as an
abb for a days outing, the catch is
a secondary condition. OF course,
nice string of the shimmering little
beauties adds considerably to the day
and is always worth trying for, but
the primary idea is generally to just
get out under clear sky and into the
singing brook and to harmonic with
any old tune or Tilt one wishes TO hum
or whistle, to fish or loaf and hold COM
munion with the great outdoors in gen
eral
In the city, where one is overbur-
dcned with companionship, things are
different; in fact, they are so different
they wear on ones nerves and make
the day in the open more of a novelty.
To talk to one S self in the city would
be crime, an injustice 10 one s com
panions, but along the vociferous brook
it is different. Here one may get con
versant with the willy nibbler that
takes bit of coaxing with the fly, and
a bit Of coaxing conversation does not
come amiss.
Then maybe it is a bobbing water
Ousel that attracts one s attention, and
thoughts arc expressed aloud to be
drowned by the noisy brook and the
great outdoors; or it may be a sly, Gid
ing mink that worms his way along the
drift and cntanglements of the bank,
climbing over or under the distractions
or plunging into the little torrent and
swimming, sometimes submerged and
Sometimes with his weasel-like head in
the air, as he also fishes the stream.
Or, if the soliloquizer is lucky, a spin
dlelegged doe or antlered stag may
bound away from the cool, moscow
cred banks of the stream upon the APP
proach of the fisherman, drawing forth
comment and conversation from the an
glcr.
With the roaring stream generally
filing the air with brass band sort
of racket, it is not hard to approach
the woods animals along the bank, and
if one merely sits upon convenient
boulder and eamouflages himself we'll
with the surroundings, there is no limit
to the study he may make of nature
about him as he bangles his hook and
line in the deeper pools of the stream
Observations may cover the woods
animals from the lordly stag to the
lowly lizard rs the creatures of the
wilds 20 about their daily affairs in a
sort of matter of fact fashion, always
| keeping the first law of nature, self
preservation, in mind.
And SO one fishes on, perhaps dill
gently, and perhaps idly as the fishing
becomes secondary to the study of
nature about the brook, but when the
] little fellows are biting brisklv, things
are different. Then a rollieking song
crccps into the mind and unconsciously
the tune is hummed throughout the
day, to the changing ripplings and
| gurglings OF the stream.
Strangely enough the ever changing
Z
brock accompaniment fits the Tilt per-
fectly-so perfectly, iii fact, one is I'M
able to drive the tune from him and
goes throughout the day, just sort of
tuning himself up with the melody
that is broken only when a hook is
Nagged on sunken limb or rock; or
an awkward cast has hung the dan
J Cling flies on an ovcrhanging limb of
| branch; or a hooked trout kcrplunks
i back into the brook to escape and draw
n fitting cpithet from the angler
J During a day of brook trout fishing,
the escaping fish does not cut such a
| figure with the fisherman, however, as
is the ease when the big rainbows are
sought and a slackened line means the
loss of from two to ten pounds of fight
| ing red-sidcd sport and food. With the
/ brook trout when they are biting right,
the loss of one counts but little in the
catch and is lightly ignored. One brook
trout more or less cuts but little figure
in the creel at the end of the day,and
in good days fishing the pool lust
beyond generally makes up for the fish
that got away, and where size is not
snch an item, it does not break into the
day with so much of accounting for the
big ones that got away,--Idaho States
man.