The Determined Angler and the Brook Trout - An Anthological Volume of Trout Fishing, Trout Histories, Trout Lore, Trout Resorts, and Trout Tackle (History of Fishing Series)

By Charles Bradford

The Brook Trout and the Determined Angler by Charles Barker Bradford. This delightful book was first published in the U.S.A. in 1900 and is now extremely scarce in its original edition. Read Country Books have now re-published it using the text and illustrations from the first edition. The author was a well-known fisherman and a prolific sporting writer who contributed many articles to the American field sports press of that era. This book is a collection of some of the best of these. Its 72 pages contain chapters on:- Fly Fishing for Trout. - Trout Truths. - Trout and Trouting. - Trouting in Canadensis Valley. - In the Pocono Mountains. - The Trouter's Outfit. - Little Casts. (trouting tips). - Tackle Talks. - Borrowed Thoughts. Etc. All of these are illustrated by full page black and white illustrations and photos and a number of small pen and ink sketches. This early fishing book can be recommended for inclusion in the library of all dedicated anglers. "A little pocket volume containing several descriptions of a fly fisher's paradise, and a few practical suggestions for the young angler." Many of the earliest sporting books, particularly those dating back to the 1800s, are now extremely scarce and very expensive. Read Country Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Feb 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473370708

Book preview

THE DETERMINED ANGLER AND THE BROOK TROUT

-

AN ANTHOLOGICAL VOLUME OF TROUT FISHING, TROUT HISTORIES, TROUT LORE, TROUT RESORTS, AND TROUT TACKLE

BY

CHARLES BRADFORD

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Contents

The Determined Angler And The Brook Trout - An Anthological Volume Of Trout Fishing, Trout Histories, Trout Lore, Trout Resorts, And Trout Tackle

A Short History Of Fishing

The Brook Trout’s Home

Brook Trout Angling

Preface

Author’s Acknowledgments

Illustrations

CHAPTER I. The Holy Anglers

CHAPTER II. Histories Of The Trouts—How The Angler Takes Them

CHAPTER III. The Angler And The Fisherman

CHAPTER IV. Fly-Fishing

CHAPTER V. Walton’s Way

CHAPTER VI. The Wanton Way

CHAPTER VII. Fly-Fishing For Trout

CHAPTER VIII. The Angler’s Prayer—Save The Woods And Waters

CHAPTER IX. Trout And Trouting

CHAPTER X. Trouting In Canadensis Valley

CHAPTER XI. The Trouter’s Outfit

CHAPTER XII. Trout Flies, Artificial And Natural

CHAPTER XIII. The Brook Trout’s Rival

CHAPTER XIV. Trout On Barbless Hooks

CHAPTER XV. The Brook Trout Incognito

CHAPTER XVI. Hooking The Trout

CHAPTER XVII. Doctor Nature

CHAPTER XVIII. The Brook Trout

CHAPTER XIX. The Angler

CHAPTER XX. Angling

CHAPTER XXI. Trout Flies

CHAPTER XXII. Casting The Fly

CHAPTER XXIII. Tackle Talks

CHAPTER XXIV. The Angler’s Kitchen

CHAPTER XXV. Care And Breeding Of Trout

CHAPTER XXVI. The Angler’s Clothing And Footwear

CHAPTER XXVII. Little Casts

CHAPTER XXVIII. Borrowed Lines

A Short History of Fishing

Fishing, in its broadest sense – is the activity of catching fish. It is an ancient practice dating back at least 40,000 years. Since the sixteenth century fishing vessels have been able to cross oceans in pursuit of fish and since the nineteenth century it has been possible to use larger vessels and in some cases process the fish on board. Techniques for catching fish include varied methods such as hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.

Isotopic analysis of the skeletal remains of Tianyuan man, a 40,000 year old modern human from eastern Asia, has shown that he regularly consumed freshwater fish. As well as this, archaeological features such as shell middens, discarded fish-bones and cave paintings show that sea foods were important for early man’s survival and were consumed in significant quantities. The first civilisation to practice organised fishing was the Egyptians however, as the River Nile was so full of fish. The Egyptians invented various implements and methods for fishing and these are clearly illustrated in tomb scenes, drawings and papyrus documents. Simple reed boats served for fishing. Woven nets, weir baskets made from willow branches, harpoons and hook and line (the hooks having a length of between eight millimetres and eighteen centimetres) were all being used. By the twelfth dynasty, metal hooks with barbs were also utilised. 

Despite the Egyptian’s strong history of fishing, later Greek cultures rarely depicted the trade, due to its perceived low social status. There is a wine cup however, dating from c.500 BC, that shows a boy crouched on a rock with a fishing-rod in his right hand and a basket in his left. In the water below there is a rounded object of the same material with an opening on the top. This has been identified as a fish-cage used for keeping live fish, or as a fish-trap. One of the other major Grecian sources on fishing is Oppian of Corycus, who wrote a major treatise on sea fishing, the Halieulica or Halieutika, composed between 177 and 180. This is the earliest such work to have survived intact to the modern day. Oppian describes various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, spears and tridents, and various traps ‘which work while their masters sleep.’ Oppian’s description of fishing with a ‘motionless’ net is also very interesting:

The fishers set up very light nets of buoyant flax and wheel in a circle round about while they violently strike the surface of the sea with their oars and make a din with sweeping blow of poles. At the flashing of the swift oars and the noise the fish bound in terror and rush into the bosom of the net which stands at rest, thinking it to be a shelter: foolish fishes which, frightened by a noise, enter the gates of doom. Then the fishers on either side hasten with the ropes to draw the net ashore…

The earliest English essay on recreational fishing was published in 1496, shortly after the invention of the printing press! Unusually for the time, its author was a woman; Dame Juliana Berners, the prioress of the Benedictine Sopwell Nunnery (Hertforshire). The essay was titled Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle and was published in a larger book, forming part of a treatise on hawking, hunting and heraldry. These were major interests of the nobility, and the publisher, Wynkyn der Worde was concerned that the book should be kept from those who were not gentlemen, since their immoderation in angling might ‘utterly destroye it.’ The roots of recreational fishing itself go much further back however, and the earliest evidence of the fishing reel comes from a fourth century AD work entitled Lives of Famous Mortals.

Many credit the first recorded use of an artificial fly (fly fishing) to an even earlier source - to the Roman Claudius Aelianus near the end of the second century. He described the practice of Macedonian anglers on the Astraeus River, ‘...they have planned a snare for the fish, and get the better of them by their fisherman’s craft. . . . They fasten red wool round a hook, and fit on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles, and which in colour are like wax.’ Recreational fishing for sport or leisure only really took off during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries though, and coincides with the publication of Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler in 1653. This is seen as the definitive work that champions the position of the angler who loves fishing for the sake of fishing itself. More than 300 editions have since been published, demonstrating its unstoppable popularity.

Big-game fishing only started as a sport after the invention of the motorised boat. In 1898, Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, a marine biologist and early conservationist, virtually invented this sport and went on to publish many articles and books on the subject. His works were especially noted for their combination of accurate scientific detail with exciting narratives. Big-game fishing is also a recreational pastime, though requires a largely purpose built boat for the hunting of large fish such as the billfish (swordfish, marlin and sailfish), larger tunas (bluefin, yellowfin and bigeye), and sharks (mako, great white, tiger and hammerhead). Such developments have only really gained prominence in the twentieth century. The motorised boat has also meant that commercial fishing, as well as fish farming has emerged on a massive scale. Large trawling ships are common and one of the strongest markets in the world is the cod trade which fishes roughly 23,000 tons from the Northwest Atlantic, 475,000 tons from the Northeast Atlantic and 260,000 tons from the Pacific.

These truly staggering amounts show just how much fishing has changed; from its early hunter-gatherer beginnings, to a small and specialised trade in Egyptian and Grecian societies, to a gentleman’s pastime in fifteenth century England right up to the present day. We hope that the reader enjoys this book, and is inspired by fishing’s long and intriguing past to find out more about this truly fascinating subject. Enjoy.

To

J. CHARLES DAVIS THESE LITTLE YARNS ARE DEDICATED IN REMEMBRANCE OF SOME DELIGHTFUL OUTINGS PASSED IN HIS SOCIETY.

The Determined Angler and the Brook Trout

An Anthological Volume of Trout Fishing, Trout Histories, Trout Lore, Trout Resorts, and Trout Tackle

By

Charles Bradford

Author of The Wildfowlers, The Angler’s Secret. The Angler’s Guide, Frank Forester, etc. Fisherman

A MORNING’S CATCH OF TROUT NEAR SPOKANE, WASHINGTON

Three times too many for one rod.—William T. Hornaday

An object lesson on the too-liberal fish laws.

THE BROOK TROUT’S HOME

"I am Salmo fontinalis.

To the sparkling fountain born;

And my home is where oxalis.

Heather bell and rose adorn

The crystal basin in the dell

(Undine the wood-nymph knows it well):

That is where I love to dwell.

There was I baptized and christened,

‘Neath the somber aisles of oak;

Mute the cascade paused and listened.

Never a word the brooklet spoke;

Bobolink was witness then.

Likewise grosbeak, linnet, wren—

And all the fairies joined amen!

Thus as Salmo fontinalis

Recognized the wide world o’er.

In my limpid crystal palace.

Content withal, I ask no more.

Leaping through the rainbow spray.

Snatching flies the livelong day.

Naught to do but eat and play."

Charles Hallock.

BROOK TROUT ANGLING

... it carries us into the most wild and beautiful scenery of nature; amongst the mountain lakes, and the clear and lovely streams that gush from the higher ranges of elevated hills, or that make their way through the cavities of calcareous strata. How delightful in the early spring, after the dull and tedious time of winter, when the frosts disappear and the sunshine warms the earth and waters, to wander forth by some clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud, to scent the odors of the bank perfumed by the violet, and enameled, as it were, with the primrose and the daisy; to wander upon the fresh turf below the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are filled with the music of the bee; and on the surface of the waters to view the gaudy flies sparkling like animated gems in the sunbeams, whilst the bright and beautiful trout is watching them from below; to hear the twittering of the water-birds, who, alarmed at your approach, rapidly hide themselves beneath the flowers and leaves of the water-lily; and as the season advances, to find all these objects changed for others of the same kind, but better and brighter, till the swallow and the trout contend as it were for the gaudy May fly, and till in pursuing your amusement in the calm and balmy evening, you are serenaded by the songs of the cheerful thrush ... performing the offices of paternal love, in thickets ornamented with the rose and woodbine.— Days of Fly Fishing, 1828.

Gentlemen, let not prejudice prepossess you. I confess my discourse is like to prove suitable to my recreation, calm and quiet.... And so much for the prologue of what I mean to say-

PREFACE

Don’t give up if you don’t catch fish; the unsuccessful trip should whet your appetite to try again.—Grover Cleveland.

A preface is either an excuse or an explanation, or both. The Brook Trout needs no excuse, and it is fully explained in the general text of this volume. Nor does the Angler, be he Determined or otherwise, need any excuse, because our Saviour chose simple fishermen ... St. Peter, St. John, St. Andrew, and St. James, whom he inspired, and He never reproved these for their employment or calling (Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler, 1653). And the Angler—the man—needs no explanation, though it seems ever necessary to define the word.

Webster, himself a profound Angler, must have been unconscious of his gentle bearing, for his definition of angle is simply: to fish, and every Angler knows that merely to fish—to go forth indifferent of correct (humane) tackle, the legal season, and ethical methods in the pursuit—is not the way of the Angler.

I like the explanation of the word by Genio C. Scott: Angling, a special kind of fishing.

The inspired landscape genius and the kalsominer who shellacs the artist’s studio are both painters; so, the gentle Angler with perfect tackle and the mere hand-line fish taker are both fishermen.

The Angler is the highest order of fisherman, and while all Anglers are fishermen there are many fishermen who are not Anglers.

Anglo-Saxon, writing in the New York Press. October 14, 1915, uses the term gentleman Anglers. He should have said gentleman fishermen (Anglers), because all Anglers are gentlemen, regardless of their business calling, appearance, personality, companionship, etc. When a man, fisherman or no fisherman, develops into an Angler he must first become gentle in order to be of the gentle art. Angling is the gentle art (Walton). The gentle art of angling (Cotton).

If true Anglers, says Genio C. Scott, you are sure to be gentle.

Peter Flint (New York Press, Oct. 15, 1915): "Our most successful