Days in the OpenCrandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
General
Days in the Open
Crandall, Lathan A. (Lathan Augustus)
Fishing
Is this all that the far-famed Kootenay can furnish? Must it be told
to future generations that two able-bodied men spent a half-day of
strenuous toil and only captured a plebeian squaw-fish? Well, tell it
if you must, but when you get started keep right on and tell the whole
story. That afternoon we deserted the calm water along the shore and
struck out for the tumbling billows made by Midge Creek as it rushes
into the lake. Then and there the sport began. The trout were at home
and receiving callers. The gaudy “Parmachene Belle” had no sooner struck
the water than snap--whizz--jump--splash--landing net--two-pounder, and
then it all began over again. We had struck our gait.
What fishing! Did you ever catch a rainbow trout? If not, you have yet
to live. He is a combination of gymnast and dynamo. When communications
have been established, he at once begins a series of acrobatic
performances which leave no doubt as to his agility. The writer counted
twelve jumps made by one fish before he was brought to net. These were
not little disturbances of the surface of the water, just enough to give
notice of his whereabouts--but clean leaps. How high? How would three
feet do? If that’s too much, take off an inch. Especially fascinating
was the sport after sundown, when the dusk was upon the face of the
waters. Then, with a “white miller” as lure, we circled the broken
water, knowing not where the fly lighted, but certain that it would be
seen and craved by some hungry trout.
But it was in the early morning that the most wonderful phenomena were
seen. The writer pledges his word that if he had not been there he would
not believe it (the reader is not expected to credit the statement),
but the Preacher, on divers and sundry occasions, left his berth before
sunrise and went out to fish. The grey is in the eastern sky, and the
lake motionless. Nothing breaks the silence but the roar of the creek
or the sharp challenge of a chipmunk. Rowing slowly along the shore, the
world seems as fresh as if newly born. A tip-up teeters along the
beach, a thrush sings his morning hymn of praise among the trees on the
mountain side, and now the sun peeps over a notch in the eastern hills.
Did you ever see more exquisite colouring than the brown of the moss
upon that rock, or the delicate shades of green in that clump of trees?
The fish are not early risers, or, if they are up, have not found their
appetites: but what matters it? Here are peace and beauty; God’s good
world at its best.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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