58 The North Country Angler. 



beetle excluding her eggs on them when newly 

 dropped ; as they grow, they creep into the plat, 

 which crusts over with the heat of the sun and 

 wind, and preserves them as long as there is any 

 moisture in the plat, and then they eat their way 

 through it into the earth, and may be dug up 

 there, when the plat is quite dried and gone. It 

 is in perfection for the angler when it is white, 

 or of a cream colour, that is, when they are eating 

 holes through the plat. When you gather these, 

 you must keep them in moss, as you do worms ; 

 but do not put your line into the bag where they 

 are, as anglers often do in their brandling-bag, 

 for the grubs will eat it in pieces in a night's 

 time. 



You may angle with this grub on a small 

 bristled hook, with a float, at mid-water, in 

 streams or in eddies, but you must have a fine 

 line of single hair for a yard next the hook. My 

 common way of using it, is on a half fly, with a 

 bristle to strike through its neck, and before I 

 put it on, I hold it between the thumb and fore 

 finger of my left hand, and with the point of my 

 hook put into its tail, and squeezing it gently, 

 draw out the dirt that is in it. 



This is an excellent bait for small fish, especially 

 the brandling-trout in shallow streams: I gene- 

 rally have a small hackle-fly about two feet 

 above it. 



