220 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



to get him one from a maker better qualified than he was 

 to finish it. To this the gentleman replied, that he was 

 not at all particular about the finish of the rod, provided 

 he could make one to "finish" the trout. After years 

 of patient industry, and with a little external help in the 

 decorative branch, he can now turn out a very nice- 

 looking article indeed, and one that he himself will 

 thoroughly guarantee — in the hands, of course, of a 

 " complete angler" — to " finish" any number of trout. No 

 one can fish the Tweed near St. Boswells without getting 

 to know and like Rankin : he is full of information on all 

 local and piscatorial subjects, and always ready to help 

 and advise those who are strange to the waters. 



Another local angler is William Younger, son of John 

 Younger, the poet. This man is a capital fly-dresser, and 

 an equally good fly-fisher. I mention him on account of 

 a peculiarity he affects in the arrangement of the flies upon 

 his casting-line. Most fishers, I take it, in making up their 

 cast, would put the largest fly at the tail, and, if the others 

 varied in size, would put the next largest in the position 

 of first dropper, and so on. I speak here of comparatively 

 small flies. Younger's practice is to reverse this order, 

 retaining the smallest fly for the point hook. I have 

 argued with him that this a mistake, because when the 

 line gets the turn of the wrist and the forward impetus, 

 the point-fly, if the weightiest, will best continue the 

 motion, and take the line out farthest and straightest. I 

 imagine also that the weightiest hook in a cast of three 

 or four being placed highest up the line would render 

 the chances of entanglement much more frequent. He 



