Robert Barnwell Roosevelt

“ He does not make the nerves thrill and tingle like the salmon, he does not leap so madly into the air nor make such fierce, resolute rushes, he has not the silver sides nor the great strength; but he is beautiful as the sunset sky, brave as bravery itself, and is our own home darling. How he flashes upon the sight as he grasps the spurious insect, and turns down with a quick little slap of the tail! How he darts hither and thither when he finds he is hooked! How persistently he struggles till enveloped in the net! ”

“ There is no fish more difficult to catch, nor that gives the true angler more genuine sport than the trout. His capture requires the nicest tackle, the greatest skill, the most complete self-command, the highest qualities of mind and body. The arm must be strong that wields the rod; the eye true that sees the rise; the wrist quick that strikes at the instant; the judgment good, that selects the best spot, the most suitable fly, and knows just how to kill the fish. A fine temper is required to bear up against the loss of a noble fish, and patient perseverance to conquer ill luck. ”

“ How proudly and fondly we gaze on our beautiful prize, not with the mere rude, brutal pride in securing so much booty, such a sum in money value, or a delightful dish for the table, but with an affectation that is hard to explain to those who are not anglers. The sportsman is more fond of the game he pursues and more anxious to preserve it from destruction than the most pretentious humanitarian of animal worshippers. The angler is proverbially the most gentle of men, he is fond of nature, peaceable, contemplative, patient ”

“ There, amid the wild scenery, at the foot of the granite hills, by the shade of the stunted spruce, he may take his stand upon some point of rocks, near to a black pool, and deftly wielding the slender rod, may bring to the net one after another of the mighty denizens of the water. But even then, if he would take the mightiest he must prove himself a sportsman by keeping out of sight and casting far and straight. ”

“ Thus equipped, go forth conquering and to conquer, and may good luck attend you. Seek any of the rivers we shall name, ascend them in your fragile canoe, station yourself early in the morning or at the approach of evening, choose your best fly, keep well out of view, cast far and light, and may you many and many a time be rewarded with the fierce rush of the mighty salmon, his struggle and final conquest, and may your sleep be sound and your heart at rest amid nature’s primeval hills. ”

“ Thou preservest us from colds, from rheumatism, and the many ills that flow from the evil humors of the cold ground. Thy leaves, growing in one direction from the stem, will lie flat, and may be piled to any depth—a foot of luxury, as in our permanent camp—and make a couch that combines the softness of the feather-bed with the firmness of the mattress, and an elasticity purely thy own. To thee, and to thy mate the hemlock, and thy associate the white birch, I now, far from thee, waft, in a cloud of tobacco-smoke, my love. ”

“ I amused myself one evening on Long Island in casting over a newly-made shallow pond with my ordinary trout cast of flies, and seeing the ferocity with which pickerel, varying from four to nine inches in length, would dart upon their anticipated prey.
All pickerel inhabit sluggish water, and abound among the long, grassy pickerel weed that thrives upon a muddy bottom. The St. Lawrence, where it winds amid the beautiful Thousand Isles and forms innumerable deep and quiet bays, is their favorite home. ”

“ Our camp was pitched at the Round Rocks, the lowest fishing station on the Nipisiquit, whither we drove with our luggage in a wagon, and met the canoes. Our rods were hastily put together, and in Rock Pool, at the second cast, I took a fine grilse. Others followed, and next day came the salmon. Splendid fellows just from the sea, their scales resplendent with the reflected light of their ocean homes; solid, strong and brave, leaping again and again, madly disdaining restraint, and fighting fiercely till the last. The water was strong; in some places the rapids were impassable. ”

“ It is no mean sport to stand upon the old worm-eaten, weather-stained bridge, and wield the long rod, playing your allurement over the water to the music of the rushing current and the steady clack of the mill-wheel, and [159] see one after another of the green-backed, silvery snappers dart from under the accumulated froth, chase and swallow your bait, and no slight satisfaction to observe the increasing number in your basket, and think of how your friends will enjoy their supper that night. ”

“ There you will learn how little it takes to render man comfortable and happy, how but for his reckless passions and extravagant desires all might be satisfied and plenty crown the human race. There, where nature speaks to you in her beauty, in her grandeur, and occasionally in her stupendous power; where the wonders of the universe by day and night are ever present, like old friends; where there is naught but the thin air between the Maker and his beings, you may learn what will be more valuable some day than any treasure of gold or silver. ”

“ It is a burning shame, a foul blot on the character of Americans, and tarnish on their reputation for far-sighted economy, that their only idea of the treatment of the wild game of the woods and waters seems to be total annihilation. “After me a desert,” is their motto; and they never rest till, by planting snares and liming streams, they have caught the last partridge and poisoned the last fish. ”

“ In fact there is no unbending rule for fishing; the only way is to try all plans, and if the fish will not notice your crab suspended in mid-water, take off your float and swivel sinker, put on a running sinker, as it is called, made like a piece of lead pipe with a small hole in the centre, tie a knot in the line to prevent its going down on the hook; use a single bait of a good-sized piece of crab and cast well out from you, and the first eel that comes along will astonish, not to say disgust you. ”

“ We removed the upper joint of our fly-rod, which was heavy and strong, and leaving the line through the last ring of the second joint, we put on a bait next to the fly in beauty and effect, the minnow. The water was freezing cold—the closely entwined boughs and leaves shut out the heavens above, and we were alone in the shadowy darkness with the tenants of the deep. The herring frequented the brook, and pursued by the large trout, darted in shoals between our feet. It is always a good sign when the herring are running, and we had excellent luck. ”

“ We ran into a little bay at the mouth of the Escomain, where, having built a huge fire and eaten a hearty supper, we slept, on a bed of the softest pebble stones, soundly and sweetly till the first grey light of daybreak, when we continued our journey along a coast so poor that the best fed hogs are, as we were credibly informed, light and weak enough to be blown over by a strong wind, and mill-stones, to say nothing of the miller, starve for want of grain. ”

“ But the sand-fly, bad as he is, can be persuaded out of your tent by a fire; he does not abound except in sandy localities; his bite does not draw blood, nor raise a lump, and is not permanent; he does not compare with the black fly.
The latter comes without a warning note; he bites till the blood runs in a stream, and inflicts the sharpest pain; he clings fast till he is absolutely rubbed off, and crawls up your sleeve or pants or down your neck; he loves not the fire, nor fears the smoke; he cannot be enticed nor driven away. The mosquito comes numerous as the rain-drops in a shower ”

“ In such watery palaces, amid the worn rocks, the tangled roots, the undulating moss and weeds, fierce-eyed, monstrous trout delight to dwell. In such fortresses they await unwary travellers, and dark deeds are done in the congenial darkness—outrage, riots and murder stalk boldly about. The migratory herring, harmless and unsuspicious, peers in and starts affrighted back, then peers again, at last ventures forward, and then, compelled by instinct to ascend, tries to dart hastily by; there is a sudden rush, a frantic struggle, a piteous look entreating mercy of pitiless hearts ”

“ The rivers of Maine are no longer worth the angler’s attention, and if he would have good sport he must proceed to the wilds of New Brunswick or Lower Canada.
In the wild woods of those famed regions they abound, and there, amid the solitude of nature, in its primeval grandeur, the writer has cast the fly over thousands, has lured hundreds from their hidden depths, and seen myriads moving about in their romantic pools, or darting away when disturbed; has waited, casting patiently, for their appearance; has felt the vigor of their first rush ”

“ I give them not because I believe any such assortment to be necessary for the angler or tempting to the fish, but because they are so wonderful in themselves and so very attractive to the tyro who fancies that beauty of tackle is going to produce fulness of creel. I am indebted for them less to my own knowledge than to the kindness of Mr. W. Holberton who, to excellence as a fly-fisherman, has had the good fortune to add experience in the business. So firmly have some of them established their reputation that a modern book on angling would not be complete without them. ”

“ The wind was blowing so hard as to raise quite a sea, which washed the weeds before it in spite of any strain that could be exerted by the rod, and drifted the boat as well, rendering the latter almost unmanageable, while the fish was still so vigorous as to threaten at every moment to escape. I besought the boatman, who was an old hand and thoroughly up to his business, to drop the boat down to the weeds and let me try and land my fish with one hand while holding the rod with the other. ”

“ Imagine the excited efforts, the quick directions of the steersman, or forward boatman, whose care it is to head the canoe straight, to choose at a glance the deepest channel, and to keep her clear as possible from the rocks. “Arrête! avance! pousse! à droite! à gauche!” with a thousand others, come streaming forth as she touches, swings round, or tries to take her own head. At times she stops entirely, and by main force alone is she pushed over; the rock being distinctly felt as it bends the thin bark, that by its elasticity gives to the pressure and springs to its place the next instant. ”

“ The coachman is the best evening fly, and will attract trout long after the angler can see to strike them, and when the sound of their plunge alone entices him to continue his efforts. The May and stone flies are good, and of late years a fly of mixed red and black, with wings, called by some, from his colors, the devil-fly, has come into vogue. The palmers are only to be despised and avoided. In summer, of the midges the yellow sally, the alder fly, the little cinnamon, the black gnat, the black and red ants, and in fact all others, are attractive. ”

“ The best trout rivers of Canada are troublesome to reach, difficult to ascend, and seldom attempted by any but the salmon fisher. To the latter, the trout, attractive as he seems to us, is a trial and a nuisance. Abundant and voracious, he often rushes in advance of the lordly salmon, seizes the fly, and then discovering his mistake, by his struggles disturbs the pool, ruffles the fisherman’s temper, and frightens the larger game from its equanimity. ”

“ It has been a matter of serious reproach by the naturalists against the sportsmen, that the latter, instead of adopting a uniform nomenclature, call a bird or fish in one section of our country by a different name from that under which it is known in another; that a Quail and Black Bass at the North become a Partridge and Trout at the South. The sportsmen, conscious of the justness of the reproach, have submitted quietly to the learned stones of reproof hurled at them, and scarcely dared to suggest that their persecutors lived in the most fragile of glass houses ”

“ The best mode of taking them at this time, for they are small and fastidious, is with a salmon-rod and a tiny spearing on a Limerick hook; by making casts and drawing the bait along the surface of the water and through the frothy eddies, the young innocents are deceived, and thinking to prey upon their weaker brethren, become themselves a palatable viand for larger creatures. They break like trout, without throwing themselves out of water, but with a noisy snap, and if they miss the bait at first, will follow it resolutely. ”

“ In some remarkable and incomprehensible manner the good old name of Pike has fallen into disuse, and is now applied in this country to a fish that is not a pike at all, but a perch, Lucio perca, the Pike Perch, Big-eyed Pike, or Glass Eye of the Lakes; while the name Pickerel, which is merely the diminutive of Pike, is appropriated to the most gigantic and ferocious monsters of the deep. ”

“ That most fearful looking, but really harmless and beneficent creature, the devil’s darning-needle, or dragon-fly, libellula, is a remarkable specimen of this family. They are called demoiselles by the French, wasserjunfern, water-virgins by the Germans; but, in spite of these pretty appellations, are the tyrants of the surface of the ponds; they seize and tear to pieces all other insects, including butterflies and mosquitoes, and will clear a house of the common fly. They are cruel, rapacious and insatiable, and I do not know of their ever being used as bait for trout. ”

“ In no development of this wonderful country has there been so remarkable an advance, such a change from darkness to light, such an elevation of public opinion, as in this matter of the artificial increase of fish. ”

“ The moment, however, the fish is at the side of the skiff, he should be either gaffed or lifted over the gunwale at once, as more are lost then than at any other time. Their jaws are mere skin and bone, the skin tearing away at once, and the bone forming no substance in which the hook can imbed itself, the latter sometimes slips out or more frequently is broken off. If you value your fingers, never put them in a pickerel’s mouth or gills, which are armed with innumerable sharp and even venomous teeth. ”