Ancient Angling.—One of the most ancient literary works on fishing, perhaps the most ancient of all really known volumes on the subject, is Hauleutics of Oppian, the work of a Greek poet, A.D. 198, from which many articles on fishing and angling, thought to be modern, have been taken. Athenæus tells us that several writers wrote treatises or poems on fishing centuries before the Christian era.
Old Angling Books.—1486—The Booke of St. Albans; by Dame Juliana Berners. 1590—Booke of Fishing with Hook and Line; by Leonard Mascall. 1596—Hawking. Hunting, Fowling and Fishing; by W. C. Faukener. 1606—Booke of Angling or Fishing; by Samuel Gardner, D.D. 1651—Art of Angling; by Thomas Barker (the second edition of this book, published in 1657, was issued under the title of Barker's Delight). 1652—Young Sportsman's Delight and Instructor in Angling, etc.; by Gervase Markham. 1653—The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, etc.; by Izaak Walton (the second edition, almost rewritten by the author, appeared in 1655). 1662—Experienced Angler, or Angling Improved; by Robert Venables. 1676—Angler's Delight, etc.; by William Gilbert. 1681—Angler's Vade Mecum; by Chetham. 1682—Complete Troller; by Nobles. 1696—The True Art of Angling; by J. S.
Carrying the Rod.—Joint your rod only when you reach the place of angling, and take it apart again when you are ready to leave the water for camp, unless the camp is on the edge of the lake or stream. When angling along thickly wooded banks, carry the rod in front of you, tip first, pointing the tip through the bushes you penetrate; never pull it after you. Fasten the hook on one of the reel bars, and then thrust the rod's tip through the branches or shrubbery ahead of you when you move along, casting here and there. This is not necessary when one only moves a step or two, for then, if there be open space, the rod and line may be held clear of the underbrush and branches. In all cases keep the rod ahead of you. When disjointed, the rod pieces may be held together by small rubber bands until the rod case is made use of, but don't lay the rod away with the rubber bands intact, as the rubber will bend the tip out of shape, dislodge the wood coating, disturb the whipping, and tarnish the ferrules. Dr. E. F. Conyngham of Bonner. Mont., doesn't like my notion of carrying the rod tip first. The Doctor says he favors carrying it butt first with the tip trailing behind. "I have fished with a fly for trout and salmon nearly forty years in Europe and this continent," says the Doctor, "and never yet saw an expert Angler carry a rod in the way described by Mr. Bradford. That is just the proper caper to break tips. The rod in going through brush should be carried butt forward; then the tip will trail as easily as the tail on a dog, and furthermore, you can walk at good speed without interference. In my many years of fly fishing I have had one broken tip; a woman knocked it down and stepped on it. Luckily it was lancewood, so I could repair it. What would have been my predicament had the rod been of split bamboo?" Very good, Doctor. I may be wrong but, I learned my way from my fathers of the angle—Seth Green. John Harrington Keene, Frederick Mather, William C. Harris, et al.—when I was being taught first lessons in fly-fishing. Seth Green, John Keene, and Harris personally advised me to carry the fly rod tip in front of me, and each of the trio personally showed me the method on the trout streams. Harris and Keene always carried their fly rods tip first, and I have seen both these experts along the streams many times during many years of personal fishing with both of these Anglers. However, Dr. Conyngham must not be denied his view on the subject. Just as there are famous wing shots who shoot with one eye closed and other experts who give trigger with both eyes open, so in angling, there are many practiced hands who disagree on the various ways and means in fishing. I favor keeping my tip in front of me, and while I shall never change this method, I refrain from condemning Dr. Conyngham's contrastive way of carrying his tip. Charles Zibeon Southard agrees with both the Doctor and me. He advises carrying the tip ahead in the open and behind in the brush.
The Angling World.—"Angling takes us from the confusion, the filth, and the social and moral degradation of the big cities and places us in close contact with one of the most important divisions of human labor—the cultivation of the soil, which is the real foundation of all national wealth and true social happiness. Everything connected with the land is calculated to foster the best and noblest feelings of the soul and to give the mind the most lofty and sublime ideas of universal nature. To men of contemplative habits the roaming along brooks, rivers, lakes, and fields gives rise to the most refined intellectual enjoyment. Such persons move in a world of their own and experience joys and sorrows with which the world cannot meddle."—A. L. H.
Colorado Trout Streams.—Colorado has six thousand miles of trout streams.
Angling Saves Words.—"Contemplation and quietness! Will these words soon be labeled in our dictionaries 'obsolete'? It would seem so; yet there will be some use for them, among old-fashioned folk, as long as the word 'angling' holds its place."—Willis Boyd Allen.
Large-Trout Angling.—Frank Brigg, of London. England, fishing in New River, caught an eighteen-pound trout, the heaviest specimen of trout ever taken in a London water.
Speculation in Angling.—"I often wonder if the basis of fishing is not founded upon the element of chance, and whether fishing does not fascinate because it is a species of gambling. To a degree it is a hazard. You take your best tackle, select your choicest bait, and you do more, for you pray to the goddess of success."—"Ancient Mariner."
Economy in Angling.—"Don't take more fish than you can use; if you do, you take that which belongs to someone else."—"Tops'l."
An Angling Classic.—"Angling is the only sport that boasts the honor of having given a classic [Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, 1653] to literature."—Henry van Dyke.