The Determined Angler and the Brook Trout / an anthological volume of trout fishing, trout histories, trout lore, trout resorts, and trout tackle

by Charles Barker Bradford

CHAPTER XX

ANGLING

"... which, as in no other game A man may fish and praise His name." W. Basse.

"I chose of foure good dysportes and honeste gamys, that is to wyte: of huntynge: hawkynge: fysshynge: and foulynge. The best to my symple dyscrecon why then is fysshynge: called Anglynge with a rodde: and a line and an hoke."—Dame Juliana Berners, The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, 1496.

"If the bending rod and the ringing reel Give proof that you've fastened the tempered steel. Be sure that the battle is but begun And not till he's landed is victory won." Author Unknown.

Fair and Foul Angling.—Anybody can catch a trout with a worm. This is the bait of the boy and the boatman. The Angler gives the trout a fair battle with the artificial fly. Comparing live-bait fishing to artificial fly angling is like comparing blacksmithry to jewel working, bronco breaking to genteel horsemanship, or buccaneering to yachting.

Refinement of Angling.—Angling is fishing governed by rules of chivalry—correct tackle, limit in the catch, and humane treatment of the game.

Landing the Fish.—"The surest way to take the fish is give her leave to play and yield her line."—Quarles, Shepheard's Eclogues, 1644. Subdue a big fish before you try to land him. Don't be in a hurry. Give him line, but keep it taut (not tight), and don't become excited. Don't try to yank him out of his element or pull him through the line guides. Raise the rod tip over the back of your head, and don't grab the line—guide the game into the landing net or up to the gaff. Take your time. Be glad if the fish escapes. His life is as important as yours—to him, at least. Besides, you'd soon tire of fishing if you never lost a fish. "The play's the thing" in angling, anyway, because, as an Angler, you can buy fish cheaper than you can catch them, if you play fair—if you're not of the gentry that judge the day by quantity instead of quality. Some of the greatest Anglers are the poorest fish killers, but to them one fish correctly captured on chivalric tackle means more than a tubful of butchered victims means to the unenlightened bungler. Contrast and conditions count for something in everything. If there were no cloudy days we'd never correctly value the sunshine. Method in the pursuit, appropriateness of the equipment, and uncertainty in the catch, wholly distasteful to the selfish neophyte, are thoroughly appreciated by the Angler.