34 THE BORDER ANGLER. 



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 con- 

 stant working fin in rapid water. But as the season 

 advances they move into swifter currents ; and when 

 worm-fishing commences, they are distributed through 

 all the shallow streams posted behind stones lurk- 

 ing under banks or bushes and taking advantage of 

 every ripple and eddy to conceal themselves. A care- 

 ful scrutiny will often detect large fish in water not 

 of sufficient depth to cover their back-fins. To these 

 places the worm fisher must address himself. His rod 

 ought to be a two-handed one, 14 or 15 feet in length ; 

 his gut, for a couple of yards from the hook upwards, 

 the finest that he can procure. By tying his hook 

 upon coarse or white gut, he will in most cases spoil 

 his day's fishing entirely. It is absolutely imperative 

 that in summer worm-fishing he should cast up-stream. 

 All the reasons for this that we have mentioned in 

 describing fly-fishing, apply equally here, and there 

 are others that will readily occur to him. He must 

 not use lead to weight his line and cause it to fall 

 with a splash, catch stones, and give his worm an 

 unnatural motion. He must take every precaution to 

 conceal himself from view ; and his worms must be 

 well- scoured and lively, so as to tempt trout at the 

 season when they are most highly fed. Such reptiles 

 he will find in all the Edinburgh tackle- shops at a 

 very low price ; and Lang in Hanover Street, and 

 probably the others although it is not in every shop 

 that they are always to be had good forwards parcels 



