TROUT AND ANGLING. 397 



the expansion of the socket, it will soon cease to 

 bind. 



In bait-fishing, on feeling a fish, do not jerk the 

 bait out of his mouth, or give him a toss over your 

 head into the interior, but instantly drop the end 

 of the rod a little, then raise it with a brisk motion ; 

 this is striking with a better chance of hooking ef- 

 fectually, the bait being more or less gorged. 

 There are, however, two objections to this prac- 

 tice, effectual as it is, in which fly-fishing has great- 

 ly the advantage, one is that of giving pain to the 

 fish, allowing it has feeling — and another is the 

 difficulty of disengaging the hook, when deeply 

 fixed in the throat. Should this be the case, al- 

 ways withdraw the hook first through the gills for- 

 cibly, with the thumb and finger of the left hand, 

 then placing the fore-finger of the right hand upon 

 the point while there, bring it out of the mouth. 

 Observing this rule, the instrument called the dis- 

 gorger will be unnecessary, for the hand that holds 

 the line, and the finger shielding the point, an- 

 swer a better purpose. With the artificial fly, 

 however, the affair of striking a fish is reversed, the 

 eye must be constantly directed to the extremity 

 of the line, and the fish struck the instant it breaks 

 water. Quickness of sight is absolutely necessary 

 to success in fly-fishing, and those who do not pos- 

 sess it, and are, besides, constitutionally clumsy, 



