110 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



should any one be clear in his conscience about the use 

 of it even on a loch, he will often on a breezy clay find 

 it effective on St. Mary's.* It is not till the middle of 

 April in the earliest season, and the beginning of May 

 in a backward one, that there is much chance of suc- 

 cess in trout-fishing here. 



The minnow-fisher, who is willing to risk his tackle, 

 may in the lower parts of the Loch o' the Lowes, and 

 about the head of St. Mary's, take his chance of 

 hooking pike or large perch, as well as trout, when 

 practising his art with a large minnow on a windy 

 day. But as pike are apt to bite through gut — though 

 we have had good jack-fishing with common trouting- 

 tackle — it is better to angle for them by the ordinary 

 methods, which we have not yet described. The most 

 common pike-tackle consists of the double hook attached 

 to a piece of twisted brass-wire, which by means of 

 a needle is drawn up through the bait — not through 

 its entrails, but inside the skin — leaving a hook pro- 

 jecting on each side of the mouth. The bait usually 

 employed is a parr or small trout, ranging in size from 

 half an ounce to two or three ounces, according to the 

 size of the fish that frequent the casts. The bait is 

 thrown out as far as is thought desirable — usually just 

 beyond a bed of weeds ; is allowed to sink nearly to 



* The otter, we may inform those unacquainted with it, con- 

 sists of a piece of wood shaped somewhat like the hull of a 

 ship, with a leaden keel, to which a line with several dozens of 

 flies may be attached ; and when the fisher — who may either 

 use a rod or not — puts a strain upon it, it sti'ikes diagonally 

 outwards, and may be drawn upwards at any required distance 

 against the current. On lochs it is most easily wrought against 

 the wind. This in the north of England, is called "jacking." 



