80 The North Country Angler. 



CHAP. XXIV, 

 How to catch Minnows. 



r sn 



J HIS, you will say, is child's play ; yet there 

 is some art required to catch a sufficient num- 

 ber to bait a dozen or eighteen lines. I gene- 

 rally fish for them with two or three hooks, 

 baited with a bit of brandling or any small worm, 

 or a bit of a grub or maggot. 



Sometimes, I have a net hooped with a strong 

 wire, to which I fasten three small cords at 

 equal distances, like a pair of scales, tying them 

 together half a yard from the hoop ; arid half 

 a yard higher up, to the top of a long strong 

 pole; I run a thread through a few worms, 

 leaving the two ends of them unthreaded, and 

 tie the threads across from one side of the wire 

 to the other. I drop my net thus baited by the 

 side of a stream, and prop my pole conveniently 

 to be lifted up with a sudden jerk: This way I 

 have often catched enow. But a little cast-net, 

 I think, does better. I have, sometimes, used 

 a better way than either of these: I have made 

 a paste of coculus indicus, as many do to fox 

 dace, &c. and thrown in very small pills, where 

 I have seen minnows, and taken up those that 

 did not run ashore, with a little landing-net. I 

 found one advantage in foxing them, which I 

 wondered at, and do not know the reason of; 

 which is, that these minnows, when baited, are 

 much brighter, and will endure lying in the water 

 much longer than those taken any other way. 



