The North Country Angler. 69 



my tackle will permit, and let the bait drop in a 

 yard beyond the middle of it ; I draw the minnow 

 with gentle pulls of about a yard at a time, 

 across the stream, turning my rod top up the 

 water, within half a yard of its surface, keeping 

 my eye fixed on the minnow. 



When, a fish takes it, he generally hooks him- 

 self ; however, I give him a smart stroke, and if 

 he does not get off then, I am pretty sure of him. 

 In this manner I throw in three or four times at 

 the upper part of a stream, but never twice in the 

 same place, but a yard lower every cast. I al- 

 ways throw quite over the stream, and let the 

 bait cross it in a round, like a semicircle, about 

 a foot below the surface, which the two shot of 

 No. 3, or 4, that I always have upon my line, 

 nine or ten inches from the hooks, will sink it 

 to. When I am drawing the bait across the 

 stream, I keep the top of the rod within less than 

 a yard from the water, and draw it downwards, 

 that the bait may be at the greater distance from 

 me, and the first thing that the fish will see. 

 Sometimes I can see the fish before he takes the 

 bait, and then I give in the rod a little, that the 

 minnow may, as it were, meet him halfway; but 

 if I think he is shy I pull it away and do not 

 throw it in again till he has got to his feeding 

 place. The twirling of the minnow is the 

 beauty of this way of angling, the fish seeing it 

 at a greater distance, and fancying it is making 

 all the haste it can to escape from them, $md so 

 make the more haste to catch it. 



You may trowl with the minnow baited, as 

 the gentleman did, with two middle-sized hocks, 



