ANGLING ON THE BORDERS. 33 



As a rule, larger flies may be used in the Tweed than 

 in any of its tributaries or in smaller streams. Fine- 

 ness of gut and lightness of construction — the wings 

 being gauzy and the body slim — are of more impor- 

 tance in the fly than the precise shade of colour. 

 The fly-fisher's rod should be so light as to be capable 

 of being used with one hand for a whole day without 

 fatiguing the angler. It must also be pretty stiff, to 

 enable him to strike with instant rapidity, and to 

 throw if necessary against the wind. It cannot there- 

 fore be long, and to our mind about 11 or 12 feet is 

 the longest that will suit most people. 



Next to Fly-fishing, both in the order of the sea- 

 son and in general estimation, comes "Worm-fishing. 

 Worm-fishing may be practised the whole season 

 through, and trout may probably be caught with it 

 every day in the year. We have taken them in that 

 way when a dead worm froze to brittleness if kept a 

 few minutes in the air, and the dropping water icicled 

 on the line. But worm-fishing proper does not begin 

 until the trout have fed to satiety upon the abundance 

 of insects called forth by the summer sun ; and it is 

 usually about the beginning or middle of June that it 

 becomes for the time the most deadly and satisfactory 

 of all modes of angling. Trout in the beginning of the 

 fly-fisher's season are to be found chiefly in pools, their 

 strength not yet enabling them to lie with constant- 

 working fin in rapid water. But as the season ad- 

 vances they move into swifter currents ; and when 

 worm-fishing commences, they are distributed through 

 all the shallow streams — posted behind stones — lurk- 



C 



