106 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 
worm is not when rivers are swollen or swelling, but 
when they are low and bright,—June and July in Scot- 
land, and July and August in England, being the two best 
months—at the time, in short, when fly-fishing is, from 
the nature of the case, least attractive and most unre- 
munerative. Instead of short rods and coarse tackle, 
long, light weapons, and the very finest gut, are in 
requisition, with which the worm-fisher enters the river, 
and wading as nearly up the middle as he can, fishes 
before him the swift runs and shallows, and the broad 
bed of the stream itself; often going far towards filling 
his creel without ever setting foot on the bank. Worm- 
fishing, as above described, is certainly a very deadly— 
probably the most deadly —mode of Trout fishing 
generally sanctioned by the canons of the art; and it is 
not at all to be wondered at that on some much-fre- 
quented waters its use is prohibited. 
But there are thousands of miles of river and stream 
in the wilds of Ireland and Scotland, and some few 
still in England, where from year’s end to year’s end 
the fly of the angler rarely falls, and on which the 
breed of Trout is only improved by a little thinning out 
now and then. Here is the legitimate domain of the 
worm-fisher, and thus pursued worm-fishing is a sport 
which need fear comparison with none. 
As regards the tackle to be used in worm-fishing, I 
cannot better explain the views which I would com- 
mend to the reader’s consideration than by quoting a 
