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31 THE NOSE KNOWS Some veteran bream anglers can find schools of spawning sunfish by sniffing for them. When bream such as bluegills and shellcrackers gather to spawn, milt sprayed over the females' eggs emits a strong, fishy odor. To a fisherman with a good nose, the smell is a dead giveaway. Follow the scent trail upwind until it is undetectable, then start fishing a bit downwind from there.

32 CAN YOU SEE ME NOW? You're wading along a shallow stream and see a fish. Has it spotted you, too? Probably, as long as you're in its "window," which is a round area on the surface directly above the fish. The diameter of the window is about twice the fish's depth.

33 SHALLOW LUNKERS Many trout fishermen pass up water where the surface looks broken and riffly, assuming it's too shallow for trout. That's a mistake; even a good-sized trout foraging for minnows might lie in a pocket behind a boulder in water less than a foot deep.

34 STURGEONS BIG AND SMALL Members of the sturgeon family are the largest fish inhabiting the fresh waters of North America—and some are also among the smallest. The white sturgeon (shown here), which is found in rivers along the Pacific Coast, has been known to reach a weight of almost a ton, and today's anglers of the Pacific Northwest commonly catch whites in the 200- to 300- pound range. Shovelnoses, on the other hand, seldom weigh more than 10 pounds in their Midwestern home waters.

35 UPSTREAM HIDEOUTS Though it's wise to fish the eddies on the downstream sides of boulders or other obstructions, don't ignore the upstream ends. There is usually an eddy on the upstream side as well, and fish might be stationed there looking for a stream-borne meal.

36 ALASKA'S SILVER KING You won't find a tarpon anywhere within a few thousand miles of Alaska, but our 49th state is home to a silvery fish called the inconnu (or sheefish), which bears a close resemblance. In fact, inconnu are often called "tarpon of the North."

37 NET REWARDS The heaviest trout ever taken in North America was a 102-pound lake trout caught in Saskatchewan's Lake Athabasca. The fish didn't qualify as a hook-and-line record; it was netted.

38 ONE COOL DUDE What freshwater game fish has the coldest water temperature preference? It's the lake trout, whose preferred temperature range is 48 to 52 degrees. This explains why lakers are sometimes found in water more than 100 feet deep. Use a temperature gauge to find water that's in the right range, and you'll find lakers.

39 PRETTY IN PINK Perhaps the strangest name for a freshwater fish is the Dolly Varden, a pink-spotted char found in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. The name comes from Miss Dolly Varden, a character in Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge who wore a pink-spotted dress.

40 BROWNS ARE NO GENIUSES Brown trout are said to be among the most intelligent of the salmonids, and consequently their populations can hold up under quite heavy fishing pressure throughout their range. The brown's elusiveness has nothing to do with its brainpower, however. Rather, it's a result of their affinity for heavy cover as well as their night-feeding habits.