ANGLING, the sport of fishing with hook and line. Some authorities have Insisted that a rod is an essential concomitant. There is, however, on record of a court proceeding the decision that a rod is not necessary to the prac tice of angling, but that the personal manipula tion of the tackle as sport creates the distinc tion between angling and ordinary commercial fishing.
By its devotees angling in its highest de velopment is claimed to be both an art and a science, as well as the sport of sports — espe cially to the Contemplative Man* as Izaak Walton styled him nearly three centuries ago.
The requirements of a peculiarly cultivated judgment and skill, and equanimity of temper, together with the fascination of the picturesque in nature's water courses and water levels, to be followed in solitude, stealthily and in silence, combine to give to angling a charm to which no other sport may lay equal claim.
The literature of angling has been prodi gious, more than 3,000 volumes on the subject having been published since the first, °The Treatyse of Fyshynge with an Angle,)) appeared in 1496 — besides innumerable essays, papers and magazine articles.
Angling divides naturally into °sweet water" or fresh water• angling, and salt water or sea angling.
The game fish most sought by fresh water anglers in America are, first of all, the Atlantic salmon and the brook trout, with the black bass a strong rival for the reputation of either as to the quality of piscatorial sport they afford. The favorite salmon haunts are the rivers of Canada, into which the salmon finds its way from the salt sea. The land-locked salmon and ouananiche, found in the lakes and streams of Maine and Canada, also belong in the first rank as sport fishes. The speckled trout and black bass are generally distributed all over the country, thanks to the activities of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and there are few sections north of Georgia where they may not be found. In this organized distribution of game fishes the brown trout of Europe and the rainbow trout of the Pacific coast streams have shared with the commoner brook or speckled trout, and from year to year are to be found in increasing numbers and in an ever-widening area. Other sweet-water fish which attract the attention of discriminating sportsmen are the muscallunge, pike and pickerel, and the lake trout and salmon trout. By many anglers the
world over the docile perch would be men tioned among sport fishes, and with good reason if the fact that it has contributed a myriad hours of gentle sport to multitudes of simple fishers be allowed to count in its favor.
Sea angling is sport of sterner and often strenuous quality. Its captures are large and powerful fish with whom angling becomes in some instances a battle rather than a sport. The variety of game fishes sought in salt waters is much larger than that which lures the fresh water angler. Bluefish, striped bass, weakfish and sea bass are well known to the shore and o•-shore anglers of the north Atlantic and north Pacific coasts. The sporting grounds for big fish are the semi-tropical waters of Florida and the Gulf, and of southern California. Here the tarpon, tuna, yellowtail, shark, swordfish and the ray invite the absorbed attention of the most vigorous sportsman, and it must be said that the contest with a big fish on light tackle is not one for the delectation of the °Contem plative Mario for whom the immortal Izaak re corded his peaceful observations.
The culmination of the angler's art is, by common consent, the capture of fish with the artificial qty." The special skill required in casting the fly accurately to the spot decided upon, whether it be near or far, and whatever the difficulties which nature presents, calls for devoted practice and persisting patience. A very few anglers seem to possess it naturally: for the great majority it must be acquired.
There are two schools of fly-casters among anglers, the old-fashioned wet caster, who did not restrict himself 6i any number of flies, and who moved up or down the stream casting fre quently as he went, his fly sinking below the surface of the water, and the modern school of dry casters who restrict themselves to a single artificial fly, made very small, dressed with up standing wings, so as to ensure its floating on the surface, and sometimes anointed with an odorless oil to keep it dry. The distinction is far from being a rigid one, most flycasters being quite ready to substitute a wet fly for a dry one when the fish refuse the latter. Some anglers of the ultra type do not indulge in promiscuous fishing but await the rise of a fish, and then de vote their energies to the capture of that par ticular specimen.