To his surprise and somewhat to his disgust at his own indiscretion in telling the story, one of the gentlemen began to count, and, believe it or not, he assures me that at the fateful fourteen, he gained a first-class strike, and continued to have success throughout the afternoon.
As he left the boat he turned to his companion and said: "Well, that fourteen's proved a lucky number.

I'm going right over to the roulette wheel to see what luck it will give me over there." My boatman friend added that as he heard nothing of any great winnings at the wheel that night, and Mr.N.looked rather quiet and sober the next day, he is afraid the luck did not last.

Needless to say that except to me, and then only in my capacity as a writer, the story has never been told.
Now, while the jerk-line method brings much joy to the heart of the successful and lucky amateur, the genuine disciple of Izaak Walton scorns this unsportsman-like method.

He comes earlier in the season, April, May, or June, or later, in September, and brings his rod and line, when the fish keep nearer to the shore in the pot-holes and rocky formations, and then angles with the fly.

It is only at these times, however, that he is at all likely to have any success, as the Tahoe trout does not generally rise to the fly.
Yet, strange to say, in all the smaller trout-stocked lakes of the region, Fallen Leaf, Cascade, Heather, Lily, Susie, Lucile, Grass, LeConte, Rock Bound, the Velmas, Angora, Echo, Tamarack, Lake of the Woods, Rainbow, Pit, Gilmore, Kalmia, Fontinalis, Eagle, Granite, and as many more, the trout are invariably caught with the fly, though the species most sought after is not the native Tahoe trout, but the eastern brook.